Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contribution of the honourable member opposite, the member for Mackellar, not for its comments or arguments about the carbon tax, because there were not any. As to a price on carbon and electricity, she referred to electricity prices, and she referred to the rebuttal by the Prime Minister, the minister responsible and the Treasurer of the statements being made on a continuing basis in this parliament by the opposition.

We saw a prime example of that yesterday, when we saw another illustration of the porkies which seem to float from the other side of the chamber on a regular basis, attempting to mislead the Australian population into believing that somehow or other the price on carbon is responsible for the extraordinary increases in electricity prices across the country, when the opposition know and the community knows, generally speaking, that that is not the case. The facts speak for themselves. When we saw yesterday the opposition table a bill and assert some horrendous increase in electricity price as a result of the price on carbon, we learnt, of course, that the increase on the electricity bill which was presented was almost solely attributable—except for nine per cent, which I think was the figure attributable to the price on carbon—to increased electricity consumption in that household. To come into the parliament and assert that the doubling of the electricity cost to a particular family was the direct result of the price on carbon was disingenuous. It was dishonest. It was untrue. It was a porky.

It is up to the opposition to make the case as to why they believe we should not have a price on carbon, but it is not up to the opposition to strike fear in the hearts of Australians that somehow or other their lives are going to change irreversibly, beyond their control, because of the fact that we have a price on carbon. We were told that it was going to be Armageddon when the price on carbon was introduced. We were told that Whyalla would disappear off the face of the earth. Let me just say that I sit next to Minister Gray, the member for Brand. His mother lives in Whyalla. He tells me, most assuredly, that Whyalla still exists.

I am surprised, therefore, that we have not had an apology from the Leader of the Opposition, because all of these grandiose claims about Armageddon, about how the earth would be flattened by the decisions taken by this government in relation to a price on carbon, have proven to be untrue. Yet we do not see the opposition walking back from the accusations they are making to the community about the impact of the price on carbon on their daily lives.

We ought to know about the electricity prices. We know what has happened to electricity prices in this country, and very little of it has got to do with the price on carbon. We know that, in the last three years, per household, power prices have gone up in New South Wales by 55 per cent; in Victoria by 33 per cent; in Queensland by 39 per cent and in South Australia by 43 per cent. In Western Australia, they have gone up by a whopping $552 per household. It is not the carbon price—it is decisions by state governments.

Yet we did not hear a whimper, not a yelp, from the opposition protesting against the increase in electricity prices in those states when they increased them so markedly, with a dramatic impact on the household budgets of families in those states. It is a shame on the opposition. They need to explain to the Australian community the detail of why prices increase, not come in with some story, which proves to be untrue each time they tell it, that somehow or other it is the carbon price which is responsible for a dramatic increase in electricity prices. It is manifestly untrue. It is an untruth.

We do not see the opposition going out and trying to tell the truth; it is quite the opposite. They are attempting to convince the Australian community that every increase in price that they see on their electricity bill is a result of carbon pricing. They know it is false. We know it is false. But they will not admit it to the Australian community. We have just seen, unfortunately, another example from the member opposite, a person whom I respect—but nevertheless it is up to her to make sure that she tells the truth. Just simply tell the truth. If we all tell the truth in this place about the impact of carbon pricing, there will be no fear in the community about the impact of carbon pricing. There will be no fear because the facts are abundantly clear to all those who take just a moment to have a look at what is happening.

In the context of the carbon price, the government acknowledged that there would be an impact on family budgets. We acknowledged what that impact would be. So we put in place a set of measures to address the additional costs to all Australians across the community, particularly those in need such as aged Australians and veterans. I will give you some of the detail.

As a result of assistance to seniors, 3.4 million pensioners in Australia will receive assistance that more than covers their average expected cost of putting a price on carbon: a real and permanent increase to the pension of around $338 per year for singles and around $510 a year for couples combined. Self-funded retirees with a Commonwealth seniors health card will receive the same support as aged pensioners through extra payments paid with the seniors supplement. Seniors and others with medical conditions who rely on medical treatment that uses more power can get extra help with their bills through the 'essential medical equipment payment' of $140 per year, with over 10,000 payments already made.

Our support is targeted at low- and middle-income families and pensioners who have the least room to move in their family budgets. On average, the expected increase in costs due to a carbon price for a single pensioner will be just $204 per year. With the increase in their pension payments of $338 they will be $134 better off.

Why don't the opposition just simply tell the truth and tell the community that in fact their family budgets will be able to sustain any increases that might come about as a result of the carbon pricing because of these supplements which are being made? On average, the expected increase in costs due to a carbon price for a pensioner couple will be $284 per year. With the increase in their pension payments of $510 per year, they will be $226 better off.

So why are we hearing consistently, day after day after day, representations from the opposition which tell us that that is not the case? It is manifestly untrue. We know that, under the Liberals' plan, they will claw back $300 a year from single pensioners and more than $500 a year from pensioner couples. And the New South Wales and Queensland Liberal governments have finally come clean on their plans to claw back money from public housing tenants to fill their own coffers.

We have already delivered the most historic pension reforms in the 100-year history of the pension system. These reforms have delivered increases of $172 a fortnight for singles and $182 for couples combined, on the maximum rate since 2009. New indexation arrangements mean that pensions are keeping better pace with pensioners' cost of living. That is in addition to those matters which I have referred to earlier.

Let me now go to veterans, because that is an area which I know that the member opposite, the member for Boothby, is interested in. There are 156,000 service pensioners and senior supplement recipients who receive a lump sum of $250 for singles or $190 for each eligible member of a couple. On 14 June this year, 110,000 disability pensioners received a lump sum of up to $380 a week and 92,000 war widows and widowers received a lump sum of $250. The children of veterans who receive fortnightly education allowances are also eligible for clean energy payments.

An ongoing payment, the clean energy supplement, will commence between March 2013 and January 2014, depending on the type of payment received. An essential medical equipment payment of $140 per annum is also available for eligible pensioners, pensioner concession cardholders, health card holders, Commonwealth seniors health card and DVA gold or white card holders to cover the additional costs of running essential medical equipment and medically required heating and/or cooling that arise from the introduction of a carbon price. Additional assistance is available through the family tax benefit, the new low-income supplement and the tax system. The government are more than compensating people for the impacts on their cost of living as a result of carbon pricing. That is clear. Yet, as I said earlier, day after day after day we get the same old drivel coming from the Leader of the Opposition, his frontbenchers and his backbenchers about the impact of the price on carbon. They are going into their communities and telling people untruths, trying to persuade people that somehow or another the world will end as a result of carbon pricing, when they know that it is simply untrue.

I say to members of the opposition: why is it that you cannot fundamentally agree with the facts? Why is it that you cannot agree with the facts—for example, we know that in the case of electricity prices in New South Wales the Treasury estimate for the change in price is 10 per cent. The average increase in regulated prices due to the carbon price is 8.9 per cent. In Queensland, it is 11 per cent—that is, $3.34 a week. In the case of South Australia, it is 4.6 per cent, or $1.47 per week. In Western Australia, it is 9.13 per cent, or $2.50 a week. In Tasmania, it is 5.6 per cent, which is less than $3 a week. Those are the facts, and people are being compensated with a $10 payment.

How is it that we are left in this position where the opposition masquerade and come in here with these trumped-up claims about the impact of carbon pricing on electricity bills when, as we saw yesterday with this very bill, that they were totally false and totally discredited? I note the observations made by the minister during question time. We did not see the Leader of the Opposition, or the person who raised the question yesterday, come in here and say: 'My apologies. I've misled the parliament and I've misled all those people who may be listening to this broadcast. The fact is that the carbon price did not have the impact that I claimed it would have.' Why didn't they do that? Why can't they just admit the truth? Why can't they deal with the facts instead of making up stories which are so absurdly untrue that their untruth is obvious to the world?

The claims which were made about the end of the world—the Armageddon which would come upon us—after 1 July have been shown to be plainly false. It is obvious to the whole of the Australian community that Whyalla still exists, that the coal industry still exists and that the economy is growing. But this is not what was said. I invite all those people in the community who are worried about the carbon price to go to the words of the Leader of the Opposition and check them against the facts. The facts will tell you that the Leader of the Opposition and all of those behind him are telling giant porkies. (Time expired)

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