By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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THERE are two sides to every argument – particularly on one as divisive as the carbon tax.
The government and the opposition were last week presenting examples in Greater Dandenong to support their spin on things.
Labor pointed to the energy-efficiency drives that its carbon tax promotes – things such as a low-energy street lighting trial in central Dandenong and a co-generation plant at Noble Park Aquatic Centre.
The Coalition last week visited a Dandenong South manufacturer who said the carbon tax was the worst thing that had ever hit his business.
Bruce Parker, managing director of HM Gem, makes reconditioned engines – which are made with 5 per cent of the energy used to make new engines.
The company employs 110 in Dandenong and 300 nationwide. They are what visiting opposition industry spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella called “green jobs” which were threatened by a “so-called environmental measure”.
People with disabilities are among the “family” of workers. Mr Parker said he would not let any of them go.
The company had been “squeezed” for the past five years, Mr Parker said.
A carbon tax on his energy-intensive factory would cost the business $150,000 a year.
“We’ve budgeted for a 20 per cent increase in insurance costs, 20 per cent for waste collection and the same for electricity,” he said.
“Anyone who tells you there’s not going to be an increase on the basic products is in cuckoo land. It’s going to substantially affect our bottom line.”
Mark Dreyfus, the parliamentary secretary for climate change and Isaacs MP, said there was an incentive for companies to cut heavy pollution.
He said once 300 heavy polluting companies and some councils “find a way to cut their pollution below 25,000 tonnes a year, they’ll no longer have to pay the carbon price or pass on costs”.
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