Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

(   I have two clusters of questions, the first one picking up from MILD research that more than half of small businesses still have very little idea about the way the carbon tax will impact upon them. I have one particular area of concern. Can the minister confirm that, under the carbon tax as administered by his portfolio, the cost of certain synthetic refrigerant gases will cost up to $75,000 per tonne? That is causing enormous concern for refrigerant trucking operators, small retailers, convenience store operators, butchers, cool store operators, supermarkets—everybody right across the board. Anywhere where refrigeration is a part of daily operating costs, there will be an astronomical increase in the cost of those gases. Relating to carbon tax cost impacts, can the minister confirm that the off-road diesel rebate for council heavy vehicles was to have been 38.1c per litre after 1 July 2012, prior to the creation of the carbon tax package? Can the minister confirm that the figure will now be reduced by 6.1c or 6.2c per litre to 31.9c as a consequence of the shadow carbon-pricing policies that are being implemented?

Those are two particular questions around costs. The first one relates to refrigerants; the second one relates to the off-road diesel rebate for council vehicles.

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