Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I am sure, Madam Deputy Speaker, in your own constituency the people who use taxis will thank you very much for increasing taxi fares. Bus operators will also face higher costs through the increased cost of CNG. The New South Wales State Transit Authority operates over 400 CNG buses, and they have another 255 on order. The cost of operating them will now go up. Who will pay for that? It will be the consumers. What will happen? The cost of living will go up. This is another attack on the hip pocket. It will be very depressing for consumers to feel the member for Maribyrnong's hand slide straight into their pocket, reach into their wallet and take out this money. Over 283,000 vehicles have been converted to LPG under the government's scheme. The taxpayers have already subsidised the majority of those conversions. This $518 million tax grab will do nothing more than cover up the poor financial management of this Labor government.

My third point is that this tax will have a devastating effect on industry. Already businesses involved in the LPG conversion industry are shutting up shop. That is going to cost jobs. As this government introduces this tax, as this government looks at ways of getting out of supporting the LPG industry, jobs will disappear. I suppose that is the hallmark of this government. Already we have heard today of the thousands of jobs that will go in the mining industry because of this government's carbon tax—they are not our words; they are the words of the Minister for Resources and Energy. We also heard in recent days of the 6,500 jobs that will go from tourism under this government's carbon tax. We just keep adding to it, on a daily basis.

This government has absolutely no understanding of what drives the economy. What drives the economy is jobs. The more jobs, the more money people have to spend, the more money flows through the community and therefore the greater benefit to all. What we are seeing from this government is a direct slap in the face to jobs. With this legislation, which I oppose, the government will seek to increase the cost of LPG by 20 per cent—12½c a litre. The minister sits there with a smile on his face as though this is some great achievement—driving up the cost of living for people.

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