Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Well, today this chamber will cast a vote on a carbon tax that the Labor Party has been looking for now for years. Today, again, we see a broken promise from the Australian Labor Party. We see a broken promise from the now Prime Minister, who assured the Australian people he would not do dodgy deals with the Greens. We see a dodgy deal with the Greens that leads to a carbon tax, a tax that will be imposed on Australian industry, a tax that will be passed through to Australian consumers. This is a tax that will see prices go up. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, where every household across this country is feeling the pain of prices going up, the solution of the Albanese government is to introduce another tax that drives prices up. Not only will we see prices go up as a result of these reforms to the safeguard mechanism but we will also see investment go down.

We hear from a Labor government that seek to spruik their credentials about building manufacturing in Australia but now they introduce a tax on manufacturing. This is a government that talks about decarbonisation but in fact introduces a policy of de-industrialisation. This is not a policy to decarbonise the Australian economy but to decapitate the Australian economy. It comes at a time when Australia can least afford it. But don't just listen to me, let's see what Credit Suisse say about it. They say: 'The new reforms agreed with the Greens are going to be inflationary—'

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