David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on this motion from the member for Ryan. It is a very well-timed motion because it gives those opposite an opportunity to support the repeal of the carbon tax. The carbon tax is an appalling tax which has had a very significant negative impact on the economy. This week Labor can go from being the human shields protecting the carbon tax to the enablers of its removal. That is what they should do. They talked about being the terminators of the carbon tax. But they are not terminators; they are human shields directly standing in the way of the very important benefit which will come to Australian households through the elimination of this tax. It is important that Labor supports the repeal of the carbon tax because, if you care about the environment and you care about taking steps to eliminate emissions, surely you must do so in a way which minimises the impact on the economy as opposed to smashing the economy, which is what the carbon tax does.

This is a massive tax. There is the big macro number of $15 billion, the impact on 75,000 businesses and many other statistics. There is a very practical impact. Certainly I know in my electorate from talking to residents and small businesses that this tax is having a very negative impact. In fact, I was at a drycleaners in my electorate some time ago and the proprietor told me that he no longer operates his machines after two o'clock in the afternoon because of the impact of the carbon tax on his electricity bills. That is a small business in Mortdale that is servicing people in my electorate, employing people and playing a very important role in our community. It has seen such an impact from the imposition of the carbon tax that it has had to curtail its activities. That does not make sense. It is not something that a sensible government should encourage. As I have said before, if we accept that we want to do something about emissions—and the government certainly do—the question is: how do we do it without having a massive negative impact on the economy? Why would anyone, except for left wing ideological reasons, choose to hurt businesses in the economy that employ thousands of Australians? There is no reason to do that. It is entirely the wrong way to go.

We know that the carbon tax puts Australia completely out of step with the world as a whole. The comments that the previous member made about carbon tax type schemes around the world were flat out incorrect. The fact is that there are very few taxes that compare even remotely to the carbon tax. It is the biggest in the world. People trot out China and say that it has introduced a carbon tax, but 99 per cent of permits in those three provinces in China that have an emissions scheme are given out for free. So why would Australia, in a very competitive business environment, unilaterally disarm? We would not go into trade negotiations and say, 'You know what? We will remove all of our tariffs; you can do whatever you want.' We would not do that. But what we have done in this space is say, 'We will impose a big hit on Australian business even though other competitive nations have not done the same thing.' That can only be detrimental to our nation. The New Zealand scheme only covers 50 per cent of emissions and is only A$4.60 per tonne.

The carbon tax costs Australian families $550 every single year. That is very negative for the economy. We were very clear before the election about the urgent need to get rid of the carbon tax. There is time for Labor to stop being the human shield, to stop perpetuating the existence of this tax and to get on board and support its repeal.

See this speech in context