Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

At a time when the government are trying to introduce a carbon tax that will stop Australians emitting so much CO2, they are going to increase the tax on one of the products that does precisely that. It is pretty hard to follow the logic, but it does fit with the track record of the government.

In the last four years of this government, and the last two years of the previous government, the Australian taxpayer has pumped a bit more than half a billion dollars into LPG conversions. Now the government, having invested that half a billion dollars of taxpayers' money in LPG conversions to make for a cleaner Australia, are going to ramp up the costs for those who have the LPG conversions by 12½c or 20 per cent and discourage its use. There is another correlation here with the government's mismanagement of various things in the economy, and this decision will probably end up totally emasculating another industry through clumsy, short-sighted—

Government members interjecting—

Fair enough, they might challenge me, but let us think back about the home insulation industry. Three years ago it was a vibrant industry. I knew people who were in the industry and making a good go of it, but now those businesses are on their knees as a result of government mishandling of public policy. The latest knee-jerk reaction concerns the live cattle trade, and there will be other times in this House to debate that issue. But, in short, the ban on the trade will do damage to our international relationship with Indonesia, including with the workers at the good sites who will be unemployed. Indonesian feedlots operating at best practice will be out of business. Then there are threats from things like foot-and-mouth disease coming into Australia. There are 700 Indigenous workers in Australia whose jobs are under threat, along with the mustering companies that have had to park their helicopters. I can go on and on and on—

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