There have been plenty of gloomy predictions from Australia's industry leaders in recent months over the financial impacts of the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
Industry groups are busily using commissioned economic modelling in a bid to seek larger slices of the financial compensation pie designed to soften the expected economic blows.
Some of the claims being made based on those economic models are startling, such as the report produced by the Minerals Council of Australia, which predicts more than 23,000 minerals and mining jobs will go if the scheme gets the green light.
Yesterday, coal mining union leader Tony Maher called for a calm and ordered approach to ensuring jobs in the coal industry were secured. He branded claims of massive job losses as alarmist and scaremongering.
His predictions that the region's coal and steel industries will not only survive but prosper in a greener world are reassuring in the face of so much gloom and doom from our industry leaders.
The union leader knows these energy intensive industries face a huge challenge, but he is on solid ground when he says claims of the sky falling in are less than helpful when politicians, business and the community alike are trying to come to grips with the most complex and compelling issue of our time.
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