Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was appalled to see this orgy of self-congratulation amongst the Gillard government and Labor members as the carbon tax package of bills passed through the House of Representatives. It was quite startling to see the joy, the cheering, the self-praise being shared amongst Labor ministers and Labor members of parliament on the back of assuring the Australian public that there would be no carbon tax under a government the Prime Minister led. The lack of reflection or regret from the government about the vivid contrast between what was said to the Australian public and what actually occurred was a sight that I had not seen before in my time in public life. I have never seen a betrayal of that character.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about when the GST went through?

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The honourable member for Shortland will have her opportunity if she seeks the call.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The GST actually went to the electorate. The GST was outlined in great detail. Its impact was analysed to within an inch of its life. It was taken to the Australian public. There was an election campaign fought on that very issue and the electorate actually had a chance to have their say.

Yet yesterday not only were the bills passed by a Labor government against their explicit assurances to the Australian public but Labor members and government ministers also chose not to offer some shred of credibility back to their electorates by supporting the opposition's amendment, which would have seen those bills not enacted until after the next election and the sitting of the parliament. The proclamation would, therefore, have been deferred until after the Australian public actually had had a vote. So they told people the wrong thing, did something completely different and then denied the people a chance to actually have their say. That seems to be the Labor way.

But it gets worse, and adds insult to injury. The harm and hardship that Australian small businesses will face has been captured in this Castalia report, which is an independent analysis of the Australian approach to reducing carbon. Other countries in the world that are taking action—and most are not taking action—have government sponsored direct action initiatives, very much like what the coalition proposed, rather than concentrating on the SME sector, as would be the case in Australia. The report makes the point that the hardship and harm of this carbon tax, the financial pain, will land on small- to medium-sized enterprises.

To add insult to injury we now have the government tasking the ACCC to gag small businesses from informing consumers about the impact of the carbon tax. The parliamentary secretary opposite, who is responsible or at least is the figurehead of the ACCC, has under-resourced the ACCC and told them to tell any small business that puts their prices up by more than 0.7 per cent that they are price gouging. They are threatening them with a $1.1 million fine while not ever doing the actual analysis to evaluate the impact and make sure they have facts on which to wave this big waddy around. (Time expired)