Regional towns face ‘complete destruction’ under net zero emissions policy

Nationals are warning of the ‘complete destruction’ of regional towns under a net-zero target.

Queensland senator Matt Canavan said the research showed the cost of net zero would be the ‘complete destruction of regional towns’. Picture: Adam Yip

Nationals are warning of the “complete destruction” of regional towns under a net-zero target, armed with research that shows the Coalition holds the 10 seats that would experience the most job losses.

An Institute of Public Affairs paper, written by Cian Hussey and Daniel Wild, estimates that 653,600 jobs would be “directly put at risk” from a net-zero target and it would “destroy communities where there is a high reliance on relatively more energy-intensive jobs”.

The agriculture sector is most vulnerable, with 306,000 positions at risk. The report also found many employees set to lose work from a net-zero target were unlikely to obtain new jobs in renewable energy.

 

“New job creations are unlikely to outweigh the job losses seen in at-risk industries,” the report says. “Between 2009-10 and 2018-19, employment in renewable activities increased by 14,700, but 76,200 manufacturing jobs were destroyed. For every job created in renewable activities in this time, five manufacturing jobs were lost.”

An analysis by electorate showed 17 of the top 20 seats with the most number of jobs in industries at risk from a net-zero target were held by the Coalition.

The top three included the Queensland National Party-held seats of Flynn, Maranoa and Capricornia with 10.4 per cent, 9.4 per cent and 7.9 per cent of all employment in at-risk industries respectively.

Other Nationals seats in the 20 most at-risk electorates include Mallee in Victoria, Barnaby Joyce’s seat of New England in NSW and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack’s seat of Riverina.

Mr Joyce said the data “reaffirms what my fears are” and showed a net-zero emissions target was “hardly a recipe for the Coalition winning regional seats” at the next election.

Queensland senator Matt Canavan said the research showed the cost of net zero would be the “complete destruction of regional towns”.

“Under no circumstance could I support a policy that risks destroying country towns,” he said. “This modelling is absolutely consistent with previous estimates, including by the CSIRO and the New Zealand government ahead of their commitment to net zero.”

The IPA report calculated at-risk jobs as the total number of jobs in industries where emissions per job were above the economy-wide average of 0.22 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. It found 10 industries with emissions per job higher than this average, including agriculture, primary metal and metal product manufacturing, electricity supply and coalmining.

Labor had two seats in the top 20 at-risk seats: Joel Fitzgibbon’s seat of Hunter and Brian Mitchell’s Lyons in Tasmania.