Queensland Nationals Senator Ron Boswell slams renewable energy target

OUTSPOKEN Queensland Nationals Senator Ron Boswell has defied the Coalition's support for the renewable energy target.

Ron Boswell

OUTSPOKEN Queensland Nationals Senator Ron Boswell has defied the Coalition's support for the renewable energy target lashing out at the costs imposed on business and industry.

Senator Boswell said the RET combined with the carbon tax was destroying the jobs of low-income earners.
In a speech in the Senate yesterday, he attacked claims that renewable energy was now costing less than fossil fuels.

"When manufacturing businesses make the decision to close down or turn into distributing businesses for products from China or America, slashing jobs at the same time, they are blaming renewable energy and the carbon tax for pushing them out of business,'' Senator Boswell said.

"It is people on low incomes who are really paying the price: the people on the production lines and the people who work in factories. They are the people out in the western suburbs, where the Labor Party at the moment are trying to say, "we support you'.''

Senator Boswell said 27,000 jobs had been lost in the manufacturing industry.

"I'm not suggesting it's all because of the carbon tax or the renewable energy tax, but that has taken its toll,'' he said.

"If we want to have a manufacturing sector in Australia, we have to dump the carbon tax and abolish the RET.''

But the Opposition's climate action spokesman Greg Hunt said the Coalition would maintain its support for the RET and review the policy in 2014.

He said the Coalition had warned about "phantom credits'' and solar feed in tariffs which the federal and state governments had respectively abandoned.

But he said of the 18 per cent rise in electricity prices in NSW only 0.3 per cent of the rise was attributable to the RET.

Climate change Minister Greg Combet said the Renewable Energy Target in combination with the carbon price was driving billions of dollars of investment in renewable energy.

"This will not only be beneficial for Australia's environment but will also ensure our economy is internationally competitive as the world moves tackle climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Senator Boswell's inaccurate and ill-conceived comments reveal just how tissue-paper thin are the Coalition's claims to support the RET.''