Nationals Party MP Mark Coulton has lashed out at his opponents at the weekend while campaigning in isolation saying a hung parliament under Labor's Anthony Albanese supported by the Greens and independents on net zero emission would be a "real threat" to economies and jobs in regional Australia.
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"Our primary industries face a real threat from Labor whose track record includes hitting the resources sector with new taxes and back-flipping on their support for projects," Mr Coulton told the Daily Liberal by email from his Warialda home where he's isolating after a positive COVID test.
Mr Coulton was reacting to Institute of Public Affairs' research findings released on Thursday that Labor's net zero emissions target by 2050 would mean cancelling coal, gas and oil projects in the pipeline and losing over 478,000 jobs nationwide.
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The IPA report, The Economic and Employment Consequences of Net Zero Emissions by 2050 in Australia, stated $274 billion would be wiped out from the economy or 13.5 per cent of annual gross domestic product from resources and agriculture industries to spiral on the rest of business and services sectors.
"In a hung parliament, Labor supported by the Greens would stop all new coal, oil and gas projects, threatening tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in our regional areas," Mr Coulton said.
In the report, IPA research director Daniel Wild said, "this research reveals a policy of net zero emissions by 2050 will inflict significant and irreparable economic and humanitarian damage across regional Australia.".
The vast Parkes electorate, over 200,000 square kilometres and home to over 123,000 people, which Mr Coulton has overwhelmingly won with two digits margin since 2007, has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 1.7 per cent and experiencing acute workers shortage.
According to Regional Development Australia the region's economy derived from a combination of health services, businesses, primary agriculture production and resources sector contributes an impressive $18.4 billion annually to treasury.
The resources industries produce critical minerals, including cobalt and lithium, which are vital to advanced technology like smartphones, computers, solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles.
"If jobs were lost, families would be forced to move away for work, have a negative domino effect on businesses, services and facilities," Mr Coulton said.
Labor's election platform supported by the Greens called for 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050 realised through $76 billion investments for power generation from renewable sources solar, wind and pumped hydrogen.
Labor and Greens estimated it could create 604,000 jobs and five out of six of these jobs are for region and power bills for families and businesses are cut by $275 a year by 2025.
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