Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Magic policy! The carbon tax is obviously in a mess. Since the tax was introduced three months ago, there have been eight major changes. No wonder the people of Australia are so confused by this tax and fed up with this government. If you look at the changes in detail, it is obvious that the tax and this government are in chaos.

The government bailed out major companies using taxpayer funds on the eve of the carbon tax being introduced, including funding to Energy Brix and Alcoa. They decreased the share of Clean Technology Investment Program grant funding for small businesses so as to further increase funding for big businesses. The Clean Energy Regulator added more businesses to the big polluters list, taking the total now to 315. The government changed the regulations so as to increase real emissions from pipelines and landfill by one million tonnes. They abandoned the Contract for Closure program to shut down power stations, which will mean that the carbon tax will have to increase to achieve the same emissions reductions.

They scrapped the floor price, which was to have been $15 from 2015. The government had said the floor price was needed for business confidence. They are looking very confident out there at the moment! They linked the scheme to the European system, which does not allow a two-way trade on carbon credits, putting Australian businesses at a disadvantage and resulting in Australia's carbon tax being set by the EU price. They halted the green technology investment grants. This came just weeks after the grants were announced then changed.

Mr Deputy Speaker Symon, these changes show that the government has lost control of its carbon tax and is making changes on the run, which I am sure you would agree is a very dangerous thing to do. This is simply not good enough, especially when we are talking about an economy-wide carbon tax which is already having such a negative effect on families, seniors and small business owners across Macarthur and Australia.

I come from a local government background. We are not even seeing the impacts of what is happening at local government. I know that for the Campbelltown City Council there is about a $600,000 impact to their budget in relation to the carbon tax, and they have not even begun to pass on the operational costs like street lighting and the electricity in the buildings. The associated costs of running the council are not being passed on to local residents, and this will be reflected in the direct loss of services. Their rates will go up. There has already been a $20 increase this year. They are going to go up and up and up under the carbon tax policy. This government should be ashamed of itself.

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