Minchin has been a strong proponent of
privatisation and wholesale
labour market deregulation. He has defended the full privatisation of
Telstra, and argued that the Commonwealth should sell its Telstra shares to buy a portfolio of other income-earning investments rather than spend the profits on national infrastructure. In March 2006, Minchin received extensive media coverage when he highlighted the dilemma his government faced in the field of industrial relations and aired his views about future policy proposals. Speaking at a conference of the
H. R. Nicholls Society where he told the audience that the coalition "knew its reform to
WorkChoices were not popular but the process of change must continue", and that "there is still a long way to go... awards, the IR commission, all the rest of it...", he went on to say "The fact is the great majority of the Australian people do not support what we are doing on industrial relations. They violently disagree."
Tobacco In 1995 Minchin submitted a dissenting Senate report on the tobacco industry and the costs of tobacco-related illness that disputed the committee's statements that it believes cigarettes are addictive and that passive smoking is harmful. Minchin claimed the tobacco industry was over-regulated. He also disagreed with the conclusions about the addictiveness of nicotine and the harmfulness of passive smoking: A 2009 article in
The Australian drew parallels between his stance on tobacco and his stance as a
global warming denial.
Climate change In a March 2007 letter to the founder of
Clean Up Australia,
Ian Kiernan, Minchin expressed doubts that
climate change was caused by human activity. In the letter, Minchin cited the writings of the Canadian newspaper columnist
Lawrence Solomon, who in turn cited the disputed theories of Danish scientist
Henrik Svensmark. Minchin campaigned against an
emissions trading scheme (ETS) bill. On 22 September 2008, the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party,
Malcolm Turnbull, appointed Minchin as Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Minchin had been previously Shadow Minister for Defence. However, on 26 November 2009, Minchin resigned from the shadow cabinet in protest at Turnbull's position on the government's emissions trading scheme. Turnbull later stated on ABC Radio that, according to Minchin, "the world is not warming, it's cooling and the climate change issue is part of a vast left-wing conspiracy to deindustrialise the world".
Nuclear fuel cycle As Minister for Industry Science and Resources (1998–2001), Minchin became the first Commonwealth minister to have had responsibility for the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Activity at this time included
uranium mining, management of Australia's only
nuclear reactor and the management of
radioactive waste. During this period, Minchin approved the
Beverley uranium mine in South Australia, commissioned a replacement research reactor at
Lucas Heights and identified a future site for a national radioactive waste repository. In his valedictory speech, Minchin reflected on this period, saying:"Responsibility for all matters radioactive was certainly testing... I failed in my responsibility to establish a national radioactive waste repository in the central north of South Australia, one of the best sites in the world for such a facility." ==Personal life==