Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barker for his very good question, because he wants to get rid of the carbon tax, and Mr Warren McLean from the Master Butchers Co-op wants to get rid of the carbon tax—in fact, Australia wants to get rid of the carbon tax. The only people who don't want to get rid of the carbon tax are the Labor Party and the Greens, who want to keep the carbon tax in place.

What is true, what is irrefutable, is that the carbon tax adds to the cost of business in Australia. As General Motors said yesterday, we have become a high-cost country for production. And as the Master Butchers Co-op have said, they are having to deal with a $330,000 increase in electricity and gas bills because of the carbon tax.

Opposition members interjecting—

That is in 2012-13. According to MBL that equates to $15,000 per employee. That is their carbon tax bill. If they cannot pass that on to customers, particularly in a global marketplace—the way, for example, Virgin said that they could not pass on the carbon tax to their customers—

Mr Husic interjecting—

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