At a time when the Tasmanian economy is struggling, the forestry industry is being dismantled, thousands of jobs have been lost this year alone and the unstable Green-Labor Government is struggling to hold itself together the news of Rio Tinto’s intention to sell its Bell Bay smelter will unfortunately create even more uncertainty, especially in the North.

Rio Tinto’s Bell Bay smelter is one of Tasmania’s largest single employers, and the State simply can’t afford to lose these jobs.

The Liberals strongly support the Bell Bay smelter and the wealth and jobs it creates for Tasmania.

We have seen recently that the cost of production at the smelter has risen by $3 million a year due to the loss of reliable shipping services from Bell Bay.

The Green-Labor Government must do everything it can to ensure a competitive operating environment so that the smelter has a long-term future.

Joint media release with my Bass colleague Peter Gutwein MP

The Liberals will oppose the disastrous forest deal, which will destroy Tasmanian’s economy, trading $700 million in economic activity per year for just $7 million in compensation.

Labor’s forestry deal is the biggest act of economic vandalism that Tasmania has ever seen and we will not support it.

And we are not the only ones. So far the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Timber Communities Australia, Forest Industries Association Tasmania, local councils and major saw millers have all spoken out against the deal.

We will stand shoulder to shoulder with the workers of Tasmania against this Green sell-out.  It’s clear that the Premier is dancing to the Greens’ tune. The Premier has no mandate to do this to our economy and the community. She should call an election to give the community the opportunity to decide.

After all, it will be the community who will pay for this act of treachery through job losses and the impending economic catastrophe that this disastrous deal will bring.

This morning we met with forestry industry representatives and we have told them that we will stand shoulder to shoulder with the industry to protect jobs and save our regional and rural communities.

It is madness to accept $7 million in compensation per year in return for slashing a $1.4 billion industry in half.  This $120 million in total is pitiful compensation for the $10 billion in economic activity and thousands of jobs that will be lost over the same period.

We will oppose this deal any way we can, including in Parliament. If we win the next election, we will rip up the deal and negotiate a way forward with the industry, based on our 13 point plan to grow forestry rather than slash it like Labor will.

Jeremy Rockliff is Deputy Leader of the Opposition; Peter Gutwein is Shadow Minister for Forestry.

Today we see yet further evidence that the inaction and anti-business agenda of the Labor-Green government is hurting Tasmania’s economy.

1. The Government’s own Building and Construction Industry Training Board said in its annual report released last week that recently 2,000 jobs have been lost in the construction industry alone and construction activity is expected to drop by 20 per cent over the next three years.
2. Insolvency and bankruptcy figures show that the number of people and businesses going to the wall is over 16 per cent higher in the March quarter of 2011 than for the same three months in 2010.
3. And we’ve also seen in today’s NAB Monthly Survey that confidence in the Tasmanian economy is at -21 and business conditions are now rated at -30, confirming that Tasmanian businesses are completely losing faith in this Labor-Green Government and their lack of vision.

When Ms Giddings was Economic Development Minister in 2006 she predicted that:

“If the Greens gain the balance of power, businesses will lose the confidence to invest in our state and as a result, Tasmanians will start losing their jobs.” – Lara Giddings, 18/2/2006

How right she was.

The Tasmanian Liberals believe that we should be doing everything we can to grow the economy. A good start would be to cut the cost of doing business in Tasmania, cutting red tape and reforming planning and that’s why the Liberals have introduced legislation this year to address each of those issues.

We simply can’t afford a Labor-Green Government that wants to close down industry and business in Tasmania.

Will Hodgman is the Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Economic Development

While the Tasmanian Liberals welcome the announcement from National Foods regarding a $132 million investment in cheese manufacturing in Burnie and King Island, it is regrettable that more than 40 jobs in Launceston have to be sacrificed as a result.

While we welcome the investment in Tasmania, we are extremely concerned about the net loss of jobs, especially in the north of the state.

Once again, we will see northern Tasmanians lose their jobs while the Labor-Green Government is sitting on its hands. The closure of the Kings Meadows plant is yet another industry loss in the immediate region, after the closures and downgrades at ACL Bearings, Waverly Woollen Mills, James Nelson Textiles and the Westpac Call Centre.

When will this Labor-Green Government realise that an economic development plan is desperately needed and thousands more jobs are at risk while they push far left wing agendas instead of focusing on the issues that matter to Tasmanians?

I do not specifically blame the company or the government for this loss of jobs:  however I do expresss loud and clear my anger that the Northern economy continues to languish and the Government offers no policy to create new job opportunities which could take up the release of labour.

Today I congratulate my 550 constituents who are directly employed at Rio Tinto Bell Bay (formerly Comalco) and their families on confirmation that it has signed a new electricity contract through to 2025, securing operations and boosting confidence in our region. 

It is a welcome announcement given that our skilled and loyal employees in Bass have been wondering for some time how the energy negotiations were going given that the whole operation depends on competitive power pricing.

Don’t be fooled by the Greens:  these are jobs which are valuable and remain part of the basic fabric of our employment profile in Bass.  Like most people, I know many who are either employed or gained their trades apprenticeship at Rio Tinto / Comalco.  Were we ever to lose this business our economy would be irrepairably damaged. 

We need smart jobs, professional employment, tourism growth, innovative new industries and to support the kinds of jobs that can flexibly relocate to Tasmania working out of a home office.  But we should not fall for the false paradigm that manufacturing doesn’t fit in this mix.  It can, it does.  And together we must work to bolster our education and skills training system, improve our planning environment, sell our environmental credentials and work proactively to retain and attract business investment in order to keep Tasmania productive and competitive.  This is how we improve our standard of living.

This is what the Tasmanian Liberals said today in our response:

The Tasmanian Liberals welcome the news that 550 Tasmanian jobs at Rio Tinto are secure following the successful negotiation of a long-term electricity supply contract with Hydro.  We are pleased that Rio Tinto have been able to negotiate a positive outcome and this agreement will help secure jobs as well as generate income for a taxpayer-owned business and resource.

This flies in the face of Nick McKim’s recent comments that we should abandon these jobs at Rio Tinto and roll the dice by selling a quarter of Tasmania’s electricity production on the volatile Australian spot market instead.  Just like Mr McKim’s plan to shut down the forestry industry, his extreme agenda will do nothing but kill off thousands of jobs and turn Tasmania into an economic basket case.

This is how the company describes its operations:

Rio Tinto Alcan Bell Bay aluminium smelter currently employs 550 men and women and approximately 60 FTE contractors. It also creates employment for a further 1,000Tasmanians who depend directly on the economic benefits generated by the operation. In 2009 the Bell Bay aluminium smelter spent $176 million purchasing goods and services from Tasmanian suppliers. Aluminium production in 2009 was 178,000 tonnes. A majority of the smelter’s product is exported to customers in Asia.