The passing of the carbon tax legislation through the Senate is expected to cost a major local business a $1 billion project, threaten local jobs and lead to increased carbon dioxide emissions.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has betrayed not only the Australian voters but also workers in her seat of Lalor by going back on her word that there would be no carbon tax under the government she leads.
Coogee Chemicals, which operates Australia’s only methanol factory in Laverton, has a proposed $1 billion project planned for Australia, creating 150 skilled jobs and exports of $14 billion.
The company has said that due to the direct cost of the carbon tax “the long term sustainability of the plant in Laverton and the development of the world-scale plant are now threatened”.
During Question Time today, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition Senator Scott Ryan today asked Government minister Senator Penny Wong: “Hasn’t the Prime Minister not only betrayed Australian voters but also her own constituents by going back on her word that there will be no carbon tax under a government she leads?”
Of course, Australians will still need to use methanol for a variety of household items, including soft drink bottles and mattress foam, but thanks to the carbon tax, methanol production will transfer to China where the emissions from the production are four times higher.
“Given that Coogee Chemicals has spent 16 years developing the best technologies and has the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per tonne of any methanol plant in the world, isn’t the threat of increasing costs in the future just another example of how the Government’s carbon tax is driving up emissions, not reducing them?” Senator Ryan asked.
“We’ve had a $1 billion potential investment in a methanol plant in the western suburbs not going ahead, we’ll still use methanol, we’ll just import it from China where they make it in a much dirtier fashion,” Senator Ryan said.