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

What is the point? What is the point of all the pain of this carbon tax if our emissions are actually going to increase? But it just gets worse. At a $29-a-tonne carbon tax, our emissions go up from 578 million tonnes now to 621 million in 2020. It gets worse. At a $131-a-tonne carbon tax in 2050, we do not get an 80 per cent reduction in emissions; we actually get a six per cent reduction in emissions. Our emissions in 2050, on the government's own figures, will have gone from 578 million tonnes to 545 million tonnes. So all of those bold claims in the Prime Minister's speech yesterday—all of that big chest-thumping talk of a massive reduction in emissions as a result of this tax—are utterly wrong and disproven on the basis of the government's own documents. We are not reducing our emissions; we are just engaging in a massive transfer of wealth from this country to carbon traders overseas.

That is what is happening under this tax. It will be $3.5 billion in 2020 to purchase almost 100 million tonnes of carbon credits from abroad. It will be $57 billion—1½ per cent of gross domestic product—shovelled off abroad by 2050 to purchase some 400 million tonnes of carbon credits from abroad. The Prime Minister claims that we are all going to get richer and richer under this carbon tax. Again I say to members opposite: if you do not believe me, look at your own modelling document, which says that Australia's gross national income per person will be almost $5,000 less in 2050 with the carbon tax than would be the case without it.

So what is the point of this carbon tax? We know part of the point: to satisfy the Greens, without whom this Prime Minister would not be in the Lodge and would not have been able to cobble together a majority after the election. But that is not the only point. Deep in the DNA of every Labor member opposite, I regret to say, is an instinct for higher taxes and greater regulation. And isn't that just what we are getting under this carbon tax proposal—more taxes, more bureaucrats, more regulation, more burdens on the life of the Australian people and more economic pain for no environmental gain whatsoever?

As I have been saying right around the country ever since this was proposed, there is a much better way to reduce emissions, and the better way to reduce emissions is to work with the grain of the Australian people and to further encourage the intelligent, sensible things that Australians and Australian enterprises are doing now to reduce emissions. Australian farmers are planting more trees, and they are doing it now without a carbon tax, because they know it is good for our environment and for their agricultural productivity. Australian farmers right now are moving from chemical to organic fertilisers. They are reducing emissions, and they are doing it not because of a carbon tax but because it makes economic and environmental sense. Australian businesses are taking sensible measures to reduce their fuel bills and power bills. Linfox has better trained its drivers and, as a result, its total emissions have reduced by 35 per cent since 2007. Visy are moving from high-emitting power from the Latrobe Valley to power that they are producing by burning the garbage that cannot be recycled. This is not just zero-emissions energy; this is negative-emissions energy, because that garbage would otherwise be emitting not just carbon dioxide but also methane in landfills. They are doing all of this without a carbon tax, and none of this would be easier—in fact, all of it would be harder—with the carbon tax that this government is proposing.

Listening to the Prime Minister, you would think Australians have been complete environmental vandals until this government came along with its carbon tax. I can tell the Prime Minister that, because of the environmental decency and economic common sense of Australians and Australian businesses, our emissions intensity is 50 per cent down over the last decade and a half, and all of that happened without a carbon tax. All of that is going to be put at risk by the carbon tax which this Prime Minister now wants to put in place. True environmental progress will be harder with a carbon tax. True environmental progress will be encouraged and facilitated by the direct action policies of this coalition. Let me say that, when it comes to our direct action policies, they are costed, capped and fully funded from savings in the budget. This carbon tax proposal from the government would be disastrous for our democracy. How can Australians continue to trust our democracy when the biggest and most complex policy change in recent history is being rammed through this parliament by the most incompetent government in recent history? It is the biggest and most complex change sponsored by the least competent government in recent times. Not only does this government not have a mandate to do what it is proposing; it has a mandate not to do what it is proposing. That is why this package of bills is so disastrous for our democracy.

It is disastrous for our democracy, and it is disastrous for the trust that should exist between members of parliament and their electorates. Why are the members for Throsby and Cunningham sponsoring such damage to BlueScope and to the coalminers of the Illawarra? Why is the member for Hunter and the other Hunter Valley members of the government doing such damage to the heavy industries and to the coalmines of the Hunter? How can the Climate Change minister talk to his constituents with a straight face, given what he is doing to them? How can the member for Capricornia want to close down so many mines in her electorate? How can the members for Corio and Corangamite be doing this to the cement industry and to the aluminium industry and to the motor industry of Geelong? What we have from this government is politically, economically and environmentally disastrous. But it is more than that; it is going to turn out to be the longest political suicide note in Australian history.

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