Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is supposed to look after the working man, not hurt as it did with this tax. This tax is an attack on jobs. It is an attack on the international competitiveness of our exports.

The high dollar is not a problem, and the dollar's current value is fair value. Fair value is determined by the market, relative to what is on offer elsewhere in other economies. It is fair because every market and country is subject to the eye of the market. Labor is trying to use the bogeyman of the market and the high dollar to mask the true effects of the job-killing carbon tax. Businesses that engage in concrete and cement exports, like Alchemy Manufacturing in my electorate, are particularly hard hit by this toxic tax. The tax, at $24 per tonne, is out of kilter with what the rest of the world pays.

I support the motion because every day that the Leader of the Opposition and his Labor loons block the will of the Australian people, they are costing Australian families. Labor are costing all Australians an extra $11 million every day in electricity bills—every day they hang on to this toxic carbon tax. The amount that our cousins across the ditch pay in carbon taxes is $4 per tonne, and in the European Union it is $8 per tonne. And the trend in Europe and particularly in Germany, the most significant player in the European market structure, is a move to reduce the financially onerous supports for uneconomic green technologies. Australia does not operate in splendid isolation, and our trade and economic policy need to be cognisant of the global reality—not just the Labor pipedream reality.

For every household in my electorate the carbon tax is hitting them $550 every year. The carbon tax pushes up the price of a pint. This insidious tax is costing pubs $3,300 extra, on average, in additional cooling costs. This is the nub of the problem with this toxic tax—that is, it is cascading, unfair and regressive. It is so incongruous that Labor, the party that claims to be for the poor and the working class, would so vociferously defend a tax that disproportionately negatively impacts those same poor and working-class people. The carbon tax touches every product and every service, in every sector of our economy, and it takes no account of ability to pay. It is time to scrap this toxic tax.

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