The Gillard Government's Clean Energy Plan includes a $9.2 billion Jobs and Competitiveness Program to assist industries which face strong international competition.

This will shield industries like methanol production from a carbon price along with other manufacturing and heavy industries like aluminium, steel, and glass manufacturing. For activities like methanol production this assistance starts at a 94.5 per cent rate.

We have designed this assistance so Australian industries which produce a lot of carbon pollution are not at a disadvantage compared to competitors in countries which have not put comparable carbon prices in place.

The fact is that a highly-efficient methanol producer like Coogee Chemicals is likely to end up with no net carbon price liability under our industry assistance arrangements, so they will not be at any disadvantage compared to their international competitors.

On the basis of information provided by the company, due to the expected efficiency of the proposed new facility, Coogee Chemicals would be entitled to more than 100 per cent of its carbon price liability in the form of free carbon permits.

That is, it would get more assistance than its total carbon price liability, because the new facility would be operating at much lower emissions intensity than existing facilities.

The company has also based its claims on an assumption that there would be no assistance after five years - this is despite repeated advice from the Government that this is a misinterpretation of the assistance arrangements.

The fact is that in an investment like this, infrastructure costs, exchange rates, and input costs including natural gas prices are far more significant than the Government's carbon price.

For example, to make this investment gas pipelines would have to be constructed to the company's proposed new facilities in NSW or Victoria - at an unknown cost.

I would be happy for my Department to meet with Coogee Chemicals to explain the policy once more. We would be happy to extend this invitation to Mr Hunt who is intent on scaring investors away from Australia by misrepresenting the Government's policy.