Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, the member for Makin has been very good! One of the other great myths of the carbon tax is the Prime Minister's repeated claims that the 500 so-called biggest polluters in Australia will be the only ones who will pay the carbon tax. That statement is every bit as misleading as the Prime Minister's promise that 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead'. Everyone pays the carbon tax.

Our local football and netball clubs will pay through increased energy costs to run their lights and they will have to pass on those costs to their members. Local aged-care facilities—I am sure other members have been approached by local aged-care facility owners—come to me and say: 'How are we going to meet these extra energy costs? We are going to pass them on to our residents who are on very small or fixed incomes.' I have had hospital board members and chief executives come to me and say, 'Our increase in energy costs for the next financial year is in the order of $200,000 that is directly related to the carbon tax.' United Dairyfarmers of Victoria has indicated that the individual cost per dairy farm is going to be about $5,000 per year and that is a direct, added cost to these farming families, a cost they cannot recoup and they cannot pass on because they are price-takers. What concerns me is that this Prime Minister simply has no answers when it comes to the increased cost of living. I call on members opposite to do the decent thing, put this Prime Minister out of her agony, put the Australian people out of their— (Time expired)

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