Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McPherson for her question and I thank her for her concern to do the right thing by the people of Queensland and the people of Australia. There is no doubt the carbon tax was, is and always will be an act of economic self-harm. If you look at the former government's own figures, by 2050 Australia's cumulative gross domestic product would have been $1 trillion less with the carbon tax than it would have been without the carbon tax. We would have been $1 trillion poorer with the carbon tax than without the carbon tax under the former government's own figures. It is as if our economy would to close down for a whole year as a result of the impact of the carbon tax.

But that is not all. Under the former government's own figures, by 2050 national income per person would have been almost $5,000 less with the carbon tax than without the carbon tax. Real wages would have been six per cent less with the carbon tax than without the carbon tax. These are the dire consequences for ordinary working Australians of the carbon tax that members opposite still support—only they never had the guts to be honest about it with the Australian people before the election.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

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