Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for his question. There were two parts to the question. The second part was about international competitiveness. It is quite simple: you have either cheap power or cheap wages. We are the party and coalition of cheap power and those on the other side are the party of the alternative strategy, which is not actually cheap wages but unemployment.

The first part of the question is about how the carbon tax relates to you through the day. If you wake up in the morning nice and early before the sun rises, as you do in the country, you turn on the light and you pay the carbon tax. When you go out to the kitchen and put on the kettle and get yourself ready, you are paying the carbon tax. When you turn on the shower and the pump turns on, you are paying the carbon tax. When you turn on the welder when you go out to work, you are paying the carbon tax. When you turn on the tractor, you are paying the carbon tax. When you go to the pie shop for a smoko, you pay the carbon tax. You might get something else as well—maybe an insult from the Leader of the Opposition. If you are planting a crop, you pay the carbon tax. If you are putting cattle on a truck—

Mr Shorten interjecting—

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