Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

There is no doubt whatsoever that this government has in fact failed to address the cost-of-living pressures on Australians. And is it any wonder when this government has a Treasurer who cannot provide simple answers to simple questions, who cannot provide straight answers to straight questions and who responds with mindless aggression and vituperation every time he is caught out. This is a government which has comprehensively failed to address the cost-of-living pressures on Australian families. This is a government which has turned the working families of 2007 into the forgotten families of 2011.

This is a government that is going to make a bad situation oh so much worse with its carbon tax—that tax which dared not speak its name before the election, that tax which dare not be referred to in the budget and that tax which even the Northern Territory Labor controlled assembly wants the Australian government to ditch. For the benefit of the House and anyone who happens to be listening, let me read the resolution that was passed by the Northern Territory Assembly, an assembly with a Labor government. This resolution passed without dissent by the Northern Territory legislature calls 'on the Australian government to exempt the Northern Territory from the proposed carbon emissions taxes for at least 50 years or until such time as global consensus has been reached on a worldwide carbon emissions reduction plan'.

The families of this country are suffering because of the comprehensive inability of this government to address pressures. I know the statistics do not tell the full story but, nevertheless, the statistics tell a sad story for Australian families. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, since December 2007, the average price of power has gone up by 51 per cent; the average price of water has gone up by 46 per cent; the average price of gas, up by 30 per cent; the average cost of education by 24 per cent; the cost of health, up 20 per cent; the cost of groceries, up 14 per cent; rent, up 21 per cent; and, as every person paying off a house in this parliament and in this country knows only too well, since the middle of 2009, the average mortgage repayment in this country has gone up by no less than $500 a month, at a time when the pressures on families have never been greater and at a time when wages have gone up by a comparatively paltry seven per cent.

It is just getting worse, because in many parts of Australia the statistics are worse than those averages. I refer the House to a report that has just been released by the Queensland Council of Social Service. You would think that at least that might have struck some responsive chord in the Treasurer as someone who comes from the City of Brisbane. In the City of Brisbane over the past five years residents are paying 23 per cent more for food; 35 per cent more for rent; 48 per cent more for public transport; and a staggering 63 per cent more for electricity, gas and water. It is bad, and it is going to get much worse because this government wants to hit the struggling families of Australia with more taxes.

During the election campaign the Prime Minister said—and I remember this statement very well because it was a statement that the Prime Minister made at the famous Rooty Hill forum of the election campaign. She said:

What I would like to say is we are a government—

more a rabble than a government—

that's tried to understand and provide that little bit of help with cost-of-living pressures.

A little bit of help alright, and having made that statement just a fortnight before the election what does she do? She adds massively to cost-of-living pressures with the carbon tax. That statement that the Prime Minister made during the election—and I have had a quick look at the statements that the Prime Minister made during the election and on at least seven locations the Prime Minister put her hand, metaphorically at least, on her heart and said, 'I feel your pain; I understand; I am doing something about cost-of-living pressures.' All of those statements turn out to be about as truthful, about as honest and about as straight as the infamous statement that she made six days before polling day, 'there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

Let us look at the Queensland Council of Social Service study. That looked at the predicament of a working family. The Queensland Council of social service still talks about working families, unlike the Labor Party. According to QCOSS, a working family on average weekly earnings—a husband, a wife and two children—is just $3 a week ahead. Their expenses are just $3 a week less than their income. So what is this government going to do to that family? It is going to put in place a carbon tax, which according to the Treasury modelling will add $863 a year, or $16.50 a week, to a family that is already only $3 out of the red. This carbon tax is going to tip all those families that are only just staying afloat, this toxic tax based on a lie is going to tip all of those families into debt every single week.

Let us look at what this toxic tax will do to the cost of living of the families of Australia. Just for starters it will add 25 per cent to the power bills of people. That is $300 a year for the average family power bill just for starters. It will add 6½c a litre to the price of petrol, just for starters. The Food and Grocery Council, who very kindly facilitated a visit of mine today to the IGA Supermarket at Hawker, estimates that the average price of a trolley of groceries will increase by five per cent as a result of a $26 a tonne carbon tax.

But it is not just the cost of living impacts; it is the impact on the jobs, on the employment, on the weekly income of the families of Australia. There will be 26,000 fewer jobs in the mining industry and the closure of 16 major coal mines. There will be 45,000 fewer jobs in energy-intensive industries—that is, fewer jobs in steel, fewer jobs in aluminium, fewer jobs in cement, fewer jobs in plastics, fewer jobs in class, fewer jobs in the motor industry, and there will be 126,000 fewer jobs mostly in regional Australia. These are the dire consequences for families' cost of living of this tax based on a lie, the tax that the Prime Minister did not have the guts, the honesty and the decency to be upfront about with the Australian people before the election.

But this is not the only tax that this government wants to impose. Over the last 3½ years, we have seen a succession of tax grabs, when this government has reached its long hand into every single Australian's pocket to rip out of those pockets the hard-earned incomes of ordinary Australians. There is the alcopops tax, which is going to rip $3.1 billion out of the pockets of Australian families over four years. There is the cigarette tax, which is going to rip $5 billion out over four years—and I do not like smoking any more than the next person, but overwhelmingly those who will be affected by this tax are some of the least privileged, least well-off people in our community.

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