Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know they do not like to hear these facts. I know it hurts them. I know that they may not care that 33,000 households in New South Wales, double the number from several years ago, had their electricity cut off. What happens when people have their electricity cut off? There are two effects. Firstly, it causes people to live in cold homes. The World Health Organization recommends that the minimum indoor temperature be kept at 18 degrees and ideally 21 degrees if babies or elderly people live in the house. They say: if house temperatures fall below 16 degrees, the risk of respiratory illness increases. In the Health impacts of cold homes and fuel povertyreport, the Marmot Review Team state that excess winter deaths 'are almost three times higher in the coldest quarter of housing than in the warmest quarter. They say:

… excess winter deaths are almost three times higher in the coldest quarter of housing than in the warmest quarter.

They go on to say:

Children living in cold homes are more than twice as likely to suffer from a variety of respiratory problems than children living in warm homes.

Further, they say:

Mental health is negatively affected by fuel poverty and cold housing for any age group.

The report says:

Cold housing increases the level of minor illnesses …

And, for older people, they state:

Effects of cold housing were evident in terms of higher mortality risk, physical health and mental health.

That is what happens when you increase carbon taxes and when you increase electricity prices and when you have all these crazy schemes like the solar subsidies and the RET. The effect is that the poorest people of this country are having their electricity cut off. Thirty-three thousand of them!

There is another problem with the carbon tax. When people cannot afford their electricity and they try to keep their house warm, they simply go out and burn wood. I think for first time ever, there were ads running on Sydney radio asking people to buy wood to burn in their homes to keep their homes warm. One of the effects of burning wood in the Sydney Basin is the release of particulate matter. The World Health Organization note:

The most health-damaging particles are those with a diameter of 10 microns or less … which can penetrate and lodge deep inside the lungs. Chronic exposure to particles contributes to the risk of developing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as of lung cancer.

We have a recommendation in this country that for particulate matter called pm 2.5 we have a maximum annual average of eight microns per cubic metre. In the suburb that I represent, in the last two years since the implementation of the carbon tax, we are above that level. I call on members of the opposition, put aside your ideological blinkers and put look at the health and illness effects that the carbon tax will have on the poorest people of this nation.

See this speech in context