ETS failure a blow to local hopes for jobs

Alex de Vos
Geelong’s peak business leader has slammed a Liberal party vote to block Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme.
Geelong Chamber of Commerce executive officer Lawrie Miller said he was “disappointed” with the vote despite previously warning the city faced “huge” job losses under an ETS.
Mr Miller said he would now “prefer” to see the legislation passed before national leaders flew to Copenhagen for next week’s UN climate conference.
“It’s a loss for Geelong – we are really disappointed it hasn’t gone through,” Mr Miller said.
“Big businesses won’t have to sack any workers (under an ETS) – there’ll be other jobs available.”
In July last year Mr Miller said he was concerned Shell would close its Geelong refinery and relocate offshore under an ETS.
He warned that Shell in Australia would struggle to compete with companies in countries with out ETS laws.
Geelong Trades Hall boss Tim Gooden said “some environmental legislation” was essential but demanded the Government do more to protect workers if it tried to reintroduce its ETS proposal.
“What’s critical is when a company pulls out then the Government must say, regardless of reason why the company closes, is that all those workers’ incomes are protected in full,” Mr Gooden said.
“The emissions trading scheme must be passed so we have some environmental legislation and the money that comes from it should be used to invest in sustainable technology.”
Labor Member for Corangamite Darren Cheeseman said the decision to block the emissions trading scheme was “absolutely” disastrous for Geelong.
“It will mean that we’ll have to wear the consequences of sea level rise, more intense drought and increased bush fire threat,” Mr Cheeseman said.
“The Liberal Party under its new leader is not taking responsibilities seriously and denying the Geelong region of making meaningful contributions to carbon pollution reduction scheme.”
Liberal candidate for Corangamite Sarah Henderson said the defeat was a “reflection of the concern held by members of the Liberal Party”.
“Ultimately, the parliamentary Liberal Party felt that even though the legislation had been improved, it still had too much potential to damage the economy,” Ms Henderson said.
“It is vitally important that we remain economically competitive while tackling climate change.”
On Wednesday the senate eventually voted 41-33 to defeat the proposed climate change scheme despite two key Liberal moderates, Judith Troeth and Sue Boyce, crossing the floor.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said she would go to the summit early to “try to salvage something” but that it would be harder without an Australian ETS.