Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just before I get into the substance of my contribution, I would like to touch on a couple of comments that the member for Wills has made in his opening remarks linking severe weather events to climate change. With respect to the member for Wills, I suggest he reads the latest IPCC report where, even in their conclusions, they have backed well away from this link. Also, I think it is instructive for the member for Wills to note global temperatures have not increased for the past 17 years, yet carbon dioxide has continued to increase in our atmosphere. Thirdly, it is interesting to note carbon dioxide is not listed as a pollutant either in the US or even here in Australia—I have just checked the Department of the Environment website. There is a discussion about carbon particulate as a pollution, maybe, but it is not about carbon dioxide because it is not even listed as a pollutant by our own government. I also checked the US EPA website and neither is it a pollutant according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

As the member for Wills said, there are facts and opinions. I think he spent most of his time talking about opinions and not facts. Maybe he should get a few of those correct and go check some of the latest information out there.

I rise today to speak on behalf of the men and women in Forde who voted against the former Labor government's carbon tax. I speak on behalf of the business owners, the mums, the dads, the seniors and the pensioners who have entrusted me, along with my coalition colleagues, to remove this insidious tax—which this year alone will have a $9 billion impact—from our economy. The election was a referendum on the carbon tax and the Australian people have spoken. We have even seen Australia's four major business groups—the Business Council, the Minerals Council, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group—say that they do not want this tax.

Unlike those opposite, we on this side of the House are listening to our constituents and are seeking to deliver on our pledge to remove the carbon tax. The Prime Minister in his speech on these bills said, 'This is our bill to reduce the bills of the people of Australia.' We are focused on removing the burden of the increased cost of doing business and serving our community by scrapping the world's biggest carbon tax. When I say the 'world's biggest' I am referring to the fact that there is no comparable economy wide tax anywhere in the world. It has been interesting since we introduced these bills to see the various notes of congratulations we have received from around the world. For instance, the Canadian parliamentary secretary on 12 November issued the following statement on behalf of the government of Canada:

Canada applauds the decision by Prime Minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia's carbon tax. The Australian Prime Minister's decision will be noticed around the world and sends an important message.

Our government knows that carbon taxes raise the price of everything, including gas, groceries, and electricity. Prime Minister Abbott has said that, in Australia, the repeal of the carbon tax will reduce the average household's cost of living by … $550 a year …

Since that announcement we have seen the Japanese reduce their target for emissions by some 25 per cent. They now have a target of some three per cent over 1990 levels—their previous level was around five per cent.

In The Australian on 14 November, Alan Moran observed:

Other countries are not following Australia's lead in imposing a cripplingly high carbon tax, they are not even taxing emissions at the EU's $6 a tonne. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's recent grudging acknowledgment that its forecasts of soaring global temperatures have failed to materialise during the past 17 years can only reinforce governments' resistance to penalise their economies.

By the way, the IPCC should not be calling the shots over our economy in the first place, given that they are an unelected and unaudited committee.

The people in Forde know that the carbon tax is responsible for adding additional strains to their household budgets. As we draw close to the end of this year, families will find themselves under even more financial strain as budgets are stretched to accommodate the festive season. I am sure that we in this House with families all know that Christmas time can be a stressful and expensive time of year. This is further evidenced by the number of community organisations I have been speaking to recently that are struggling to meet the needs of ordinary people in our community. Organisations such as Lighthouse Care and CentroCARE are handing out record numbers of food parcels to those in our community who are struggling to make ends meet. Wouldn't it be a great Christmas gift to households not only in Forde but around the country and to these wonderful charities for the work that they do—and they receive no compensation for the increased cost of electricity to them—to provide some future hope that on 1 July 2014 the carbon tax will be removed once and for all?

Sixteen of the top 20 carbon tax bills have been sent to electricity companies. These electricity companies have had to pay over $3.5 billion in carbon taxes, which ultimately directly comes from the pockets of their customers. It is our charities, families, businesses, hospitals, schools, aged-care facilities, local councils and sporting community organisations that have footed the bill to date. In Queensland, out of the $3½ billion, some $800 million worth of bills have been passed on to Queenslanders.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. No matter what the Labor Party and their carbon tax allies do to the name or the structure of this tax, it is still a bad tax based on a lie. The only way we can achieve a different result with real environmental benefits is through its removal and extinction.

Repealing the carbon tax will take away a huge burden from our community. Treasury modelling shows that household electricity bills will be cut by some $200 in 2014-15. Imagine the savings to our community organisations, charities and businesses that will benefit from the removal of the carbon tax and the funds consequently they will be able to put back into our communities. As I touched on earlier, households can expect to be better off, on average, by around $550 a year without the carbon tax. Businesses will also benefit from a reduction in the cost of electricity, which can be passed on to their customers. We will ensure that this happens.

This will also address the issue of competitiveness, particularly with businesses that have an export focus. We have quite clearly said that we will task the ACCC and provide it with further powers to take action against any business that engages in price exploitation in relation to the carbon tax repeal. For example, there will be penalties of up to $1.1 million for corporations and $220,000 for individuals.

On the positive side for business, their compliance costs are expected to fall by around $87 million per annum as a consequence of repealing the carbon tax and removing some 1,000-plus pages of legislation. But as we have heard in this House from the contributions today and earlier in this debate, the Labor Party refuse to give up on their unpopular tax—even after it is clear that it is not achieving what it set out to achieve in the first place. For example, the previous government's own modelling, which was submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, shows that our emissions increase under the carbon tax will be around 560 million tonnes in 2010 to 637 million tonnes in 2020. This tax was never going to work, and Labor knew it was not going to be embraced by the Australian people.

In the 2010 election campaign, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised there would be no carbon tax. In the 2013 campaign, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would terminate the carbon tax. And afterwards Anthony Albanese said he would put a zero price on the carbon tax. They just do not know what position to take. Now we have the current Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, attempting to deceive the Australian people into believing he wants to terminate the carbon tax. And yet right here, right now, Labor are clasping at straws to try to keep it alive; all they want to do is replace it with an ETS, which their own policy papers show is going to be increased by 2020 to some $38 a tonne anyway. They seem to neglect to mention that particular fact.

All of this makes me wonder who actually wanted to have this carbon tax in the first place. The member for Lilley, on Meet the Press on 15 August 2010, said that we, as in the coalition, were making hysterically inaccurate claims about them bringing in a carbon tax. The next day we heard the now famous line 'there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead'. As I have just touched on, the member for Griffith said he wanted to terminate it; the member for Port Adelaide, who is at the table, said it was too high. Well here is a solution for those opposite: help us get rid of this unpopular, deficient tax; let us work together on strengthening our economy and protecting our environment with practical environmental measures.

One of the interesting aspects of the carbon tax is there is not a single dollar of carbon tax revenue that actually goes towards practical, on-the-ground environmental projects. The other issue with the carbon tax is it creates the impression that a tax can solve all of our environmental problems. Many of our environmental problems, such as littering and poor quality waterways et cetera, should involve better planning decisions, people taking personal responsibility not to litter and throw waste out of their windows; however, there is no discussion about how we actually improve our local environments. The carbon tax has nothing to do with that; it is just a great big money-go-round.

As has been mentioned plenty of times in this place, we all support the five per cent emissions reduction target, and our Emissions Reduction Fund will continue to work towards achieving that five per cent reduction in domestic emissions by 2020 without an electricity tax. The government will focus on measures that directly address the 440 million tonne abatement challenge to reduce emissions through measures such as reforestation, cleaning up power stations, cleaning up waste landfill and waste coalmine gas. We recognise that over the years the climate has changed and that it will continue to change, but we need to be individually responsible for our own part in looking after the environment, not just relying on governments to implement new taxes that do not even provide practical on-the-ground solutions.

In Forde we will invest in Green Army projects for the rehabilitation of the Pimpama River catchment, and the project partners at Twin Rivers Centre, the north-east Albert Landcare group and the Holcim Beenleigh quarry are all collaborating on a number of projects in this area, which have all been a great success to date—that is, for the projects already completed. These are practical projects, like eradication of weeds, the retention and protection of riverbanks and improved water quality. This is just one example of the practical on-the-ground measures that can help our environment without a tax.

The purpose of these bills is to deliver on the coalition government's commitment to abolish Labor's carbon tax and reduce the costs for businesses and households. These bills will abolish the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and we will deliver on our promises to the Australian people. (Time expired)

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