John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is fair to say that Wayne Swan, our previous Treasurer—I was going to say that he ambushed the miners, but the way it turned out it would probably be more accurate to say that the miners ambushed him. I think deposit holders, though, could say they were ambushed by Wayne Swan. To have your money taken because you haven't used it for a year or two is a little strong—I call that an ambush. I think people with superannuation could say they were ambushed as well.

I will come to the matter at hand. I just thought that needed straightening out first, because the word seems to be getting thrown around a bit at the moment. I am a member of the Australian government and my first duty is to my country. I also have a huge duty to my electorate. I am embarrassed that we have had to implement this measure—and I am sure every member of the government is embarrassed. But I can only guess how embarrassed Labor must be to have inherited the situation they did and to have then left us in the position of paying a billion dollars a month as a result of their idiocy—behaving like kids in a lolly shop. They were totally uncommitted to Australia. The worst of it is that they threw away $200 billion on things that gave no return to the Australian taxpayer, no return to the Australian people. That is why we have to borrow a billion dollars a month just to pay the interest on what they did.

I want to talk a little bit about the fact that—yes, I think it is true; I know it is true—this measure will cost those of us in regional Australia slightly more. It will cost us more than it will cost city people. Regional Australia is about a third of the population and we will definitely pay more. Someone travelling 400 to 500 kilometres a week to work and back will pay an extra 50c or maybe a dollar in a bad week. Even though we are talking about regional Australians, and I personally represent them in a regional electorate, we have a duty to the country as well. This is a cost we have to bear, and 50c or so a week, despite what the Chief Opposition Whip just said, is as much as it is going to be.

Remember that getting rid of the carbon tax saved regional Australians one heck of a lot more than $550 a year—we get far hotter and far colder so we use far more fuel and electricity than the two thirds of people who live in the major cities. And do not forget that the carbon tax would have been adding 6½c to the cost of every litre if we had been paying that now. So we have 6½c as against half a cent. That was just another one of those ambushes we have been talking about. Yes, I am embarrassed that we have to do this but, by heavens, those opposite must be embarrassed for causing the problem in the first place.

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