how alp destroy australia

Full article:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/union-unrest-threatens-resurgence-of-asciano/story-e6frg9lx-1226048718207

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Heated reaction

THEY tell me that Paul O'Malley is not easily riled. But BlueScope's boss has been irritated beyond measure by Wayne Swan's latest ill-timed contribution to the carbon tax debate.

In releasing Treasury analysis on Sunday to undermine the "carbon scare campaign", Swan effectively repeated Greg Combet's claims that a $20 a tonne carbon tax would add but $2.80 to a tonne of steel. On the other hand, said the Treasurer, this year's 7.5 per cent appreciation of the Australian dollar had stripped $50 a tonne from the price of a tonne of steel.

Having taken pretty heated public exception to Combet's numbers early last month, the steel industry, along with a broad base of manufacturers, had gone into much more private and productive session with the government's climate change minister. The idea here was to reduce the heat in the debate in the hope that from temperance could come understanding and eventually consensus. And, at least until Sunday, there was a quiet confidence that they might just be getting somewhere.

O'Malley's response to Swan's dissing was prompt, vigourous and pointedly public. Swan's "latest attack on the steel industry is simply unacceptable", he said in a statement.

"I can't understand why the government persists in releasing grossly inaccurate statements about such a fundamental economic issue. Why would an Australian government inflict further pain on an important industry like steel, for no environmental benefit.

"The total estimated cumulative cost to BlueScope for the first eight years of the scheme (2012-2020) would be somewhere between $500m and $1bn. I wouldn't consider that 'negligible', as Mr Swan puts it."