Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield for his question. The carbon price has now been in operation for seven weeks, and the fact is that the economy continues to grow. Yet the opposition leader, who is surely the master of mendacity, continues to come in here with his campaign of deceit. Yesterday, he plumbed new depths. Without even reading—by his own admission—BHP Billiton's statement, he blamed the Olympic Dam decision on the carbon price. It is important to note that, in the 36-page BHP Billiton investor update, carbon is not even mentioned—it does not even rate a mention in a 36-page investor update. What breathtaking mendacity and deceit the Leader of the Opposition engages in! He does not read it; he just makes it up—he goes out to a press conference and makes it up.

Here is a fact he will not like. The Leader of the Opposition claimed that 45,000 jobs would be lost in the mining industry when the carbon price came in. We are up 49,000 jobs in mining-related activities since the carbon price was announced. That is an uncomfortable fact. They come in here day after day making claims about the impact on electricity bills of carbon pricing. They falsely attribute all network costs to carbon pricing. They never complain about the 50 per cent increase in electricity bills from state government network investments. They only use off-peak rates so that they can inflate the percentage increase. They assert that no costs are ever passed through to consumers—totally false. They hide the fact that electricity bills only account for about two per cent of turnover for most businesses, and that means that the carbon cost increase for most businesses is only about 0.2 per cent of turnover. For a typical small business, that is about $5 a week increase in costs.

The master of mendacity over there has gone from the people's revolt to the python squeeze to the cobra strike to the wrecking ball. What is next? I will tell you what is next—the deceit will go up and up, and it is going to clean out your credibility big-time.

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