Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, we will find out! Was it a surprise to the member for Lyne?

Mr Oakeshott interjecting—

It was! Ring up Bob Brown. 'Hey Bob, it's Rob here. No, Bob, it's Rob. I have to say to you, Bob, we've heard that it is down to 500. Good news.' Imagine how pleased No. 501 is! 'Today is a glory day. I'm excluded. I'm No. 501 on the list.' What about poor, old No. 500? What a bum steer for No. 500! Poor, old No. 500. It is probably a little family company that thought they were getting the guernsey.

Mr Windsor interjecting—

You are No. 1, old soul. Old china, you are No. 1.

Mr Windsor interjecting—

You've got a No. 10! You cannot count either. Lord knows, he is now the man running the Treasury! On their side, it is a complete comedy act. And no wonder it is having an impact on the Australian people. No wonder retail is down. No wonder manufacturing is frightened. Why? Because the people running the show are treating it like a circus. That is what it comes down to. They only decided on Monday night to make the announcement because Christine Milne went on Sky News on Monday and said, 'We'll be making an announcement at the end of the week.' Less than 24 hours earlier, the Prime Minister said, 'It could be some weeks.' But now we know: Christine Milne called the timetable for the announcement of carbon tax.

An opposition member: Who is she?

She is a Greens senator in the other place who was not elected by the majority of the Australian people to run the shop. Nor was the member for New England, nor was the member for Lyne, nor was Senator Bob Brown, nor any of them. They were not elected to run the shop. They were elected not to deliver a carbon tax. That is what they promised.

It comes down to three core principles. No. 1 is the cost of the tax. I say to you, Mr Speaker, that when it comes down to it, it does not matter what the government says about compensation. Compensation is only delivered when injury has happened. And the government is determined to injure the Australian people. You do not have to compensate people if you do not cause injury. The second key fact associated with that—bear this in mind—is that the government will collect more money than it gives back to the Australian people. It is boasting that it is going to deliver so-called tax cuts and increased pensions, but the fundamental point here is that for almost every dollar it gives Australians it is collecting two dollars out of every Australian's pocket. The government can talk about tax cuts and compensation, but it is meaningless for Australians because ultimately Australians will pay the price. Whether it is 500 or a thousand, as Ross Garnaut said: every Australian will pay the price. That is the fundamental point. The cost is real; the impact is real.

The second key point is trust. We cannot trust what the Prime Minister or the Treasurer say. The Prime Minister said before the election 'no carbon tax'; now we are facing a carbon tax. The Prime Minister said that there will be no carbon tax under a government she leads. Well, she leads this incompetent government but now we have a carbon tax. And the Prime Minister said, as recently as in the last 48 hours, that a thousand big polluters would pay. Now we discover it is 500. Yet I would expect the revenue raised to be just the same. And as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out—through the government's own publication—even if they exclude petrol at the pump for households the costs for households will increase. That is the word of the government; it is not confected, it is not designed by us. It is reality that every Australian will pay because somehow, in some way, whether it is $10 billion a year or $11 billion a year, the fundamental truth endures that it comes out of the pockets of Australians. That is what will be the real impact of this tax. It is so fundamental.

The third key factor is this: everything comes down to the confusion that will be generated. This is not just about the tax, it is not just about a lack of trust in the government; it is about the confusion that will be wreaked. These are the three key components of why the carbon tax is a flawed tax: it is costly, it is confused, and whatever this government says cannot be trusted. What we know is that as soon as the government introduces a second component, going from a carbon tax to an ETS, it will add confusion. And when the government says it is going to exclude some people and not others it adds confusion. No wonder the Treasurer could not answer the question in this place about whether a landscaper would have to pay tax on the fuel that goes into a mower or into a chainsaw—yet those are the key components of a landscaper's business. The government could not even answer that simple question.

I give the government a very clear warning: some of us were around for the GST debate and we had to answer, day in and day out, at public forums and everywhere else, questions about how the tax would be applied, who would be affected, how they would be affected and whether there would be enough compensation for everyday Australians. I say to you, Mr Deputy Speaker: we will pursue this issue until the election. We will pursue this issue until the government explains to the Australian people—individually if necess­ary—the exact details of how Australians are affected, because the Prime Minister lied to those Australians. She specifically told an untruth.

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