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MALCOLM Turnbull has linked emissions trading to thousands of feared job losses in Queensland, claiming three Townsville metal smelters will close, the state’s coal industry will face a “carbon bill” of $2.4 billion over five years and even green jobs will be threatened by the Rudd Government’s scheme.
With Queensland the first state to go to the polls since the economic crisis hit, the federal Opposition Leader intensified his attack on the potential jobs consequences of the ETS, including the plight of Queensland-based company Envirogen, which generates power from coalmine waste gas. It could close and put 100 people out of work if the ETS replaces state greenhouse incentive schemes.
“Why are you putting people out of work?” Mr Turnbull asked the Prime Minister, particularly since the ETS did “little or nothing to protect the environment”.
In a letter to the Opposition, Envirogen chairman and former Queensland Labor treasurer David Hamill said the ETS would put “current investment of $455 million and 100 jobs … at risk”.
He said the company would “certainly not be in a position to make planned new investments” if the ETS proceeded as planned.
But claims from Opposition emissions trading spokesman Andrew Robb that the scheme would also cost up to 4000 jobs in Townsville were undermined by at least one of the companies named.
“Townsville’s three refineries – Xstrata’s copper refinery, BHP’s nickel refinery and the Sun Metals zinc refinery – will all be made uncompetitive if Mr Rudd’s emissions trading scheme is allowed to go ahead as planned,” Mr Robb said in a statement, claiming this would “cost thousands of local jobs”. A spokesman for Sun Metals said the claim about his refinery was “not true”.
“We had a meeting with (Opposition climate change spokesman) Mr Greg Hunt three or four months ago and at that time there was no emissions-intensive assistance for zinc, but since then we have made significant progress and we will now get significant compensation, so I can say for sure there is no way we will shut down,” the spokesman said. “This story is based on very old information. I don’t know why Mr Robb would say these things.”
In a separate statement Steve de Kruijff, of Xstrata Copper North Queensland, and Brian Hearne of Xstrata Zinc, said their operations would be “under even more pressure” over the long term, rather than cause immediate closure.
Premier Anna Bligh, who faces an election on Saturday, said Queensland had warned the federal Government it would be one of the states most seriously affected by an ETS, and had insisted on adequate compensation and protection for trade-exposed industries.
Renewable energy company Pacific Hydro said the emissions trading scheme and the Government’s proposed 20 per cent renewable energy target would create thousands of new jobs.
But coal miner Peabody, which operates 10 mines in Australia, said the ETS would have a severe impact on its two underground mines, in Queensland and in NSW.
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