Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too wish to speak on this incredible situation where in 38 days time we will have a $23 a tonne carbon tax. This is going to have extraordinary impacts across our economy. But there will also be a carbon equivalent levy or tax that, for a lot of our Australian consumers, is still something of a mystery. Mick and Julie, dairy farmers in southern Victoria, have been paying about $12 per kilogram for refrigerant gases to cool their milk. Using the new carbon tax formula for synthetic greenhouse gases to be implemented on 1 July, they will not be paying $12 per kilo but $48.40 per kilo, plus a call-out fee of $1,921, in order to cool their two vats of milk. They cannot afford this, and very few of their fellow dairy farmers can. In their email to me, they said that, to add insult to injury, these new alternative gases they are supposed to use in the future will be 13 per cent less efficient.

There are over 9,000 dairy farmers running at least two refrigerated vats each, and the cost to these farmers alone from this new carbon equivalent tax will be some $25 million if they try to convert. On top of that $25 million for converting their vats, they are going to have to meet the milk factories' passed-on carbon tax itself. Murray Goulburn Co-operative, for example, has already told the ir farmers that they will have to pick up the $15 million to $20 million extra that it will cost the cooperative each year for energy to manufacture its milk. So these dairy farmers are really beginning to wonder: what did they do to Labor? What is it that this government has against food production in this country? They cannot be competitive against New Zealand dairy farmers, who have to pay a carbon tax of less than $10 a tonne, with a massive range of carve-outs.

This is the most extraordinary tax. What other government in the world is even contemplating anything like a $23 a tonne carbon tax across the entire economy? What is the reason for this? It is just about beyond explanation, but, then again, the reason is also very simple: it was all about the Greens party. They said to the Labor Party at the time of the last election, 'We know you've got problems with your numbers in this minority government situation, but if you introduce a carbon tax according to our dictates you've got the keys to the Lodge.' That is a shocking thing to do to the Australian economy. In my area alone we have already seen, marching out the door to another country, the Heinz tomato sauce factory. You might be a little surprised to think one factory did nothing much more than make magnificent tomato sauce and tomato ketchup. They did a great job, but they are here no more—they have gone. Heinz took themselves off to New Zealand, where they are only going to pay $10 per tonne in carbon tax. I think this is absolutely extraordinary.

This business of refrigerant gases is an absolutely dreadful situation. In many cases there are no standards or licensing requirements for the gases that are alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons. If these gases are to be replaced, we are talking about 300 per cent to 500 per cent increases over the current gases that they use. We are also told that in their supply chain they will be facing additional costs including insurance, administration, finance and lost custom if they do not convert. How will they convert when it costs up to $1 million for a coolstore in my area to move from a hydrofluorocarbon to ammonia? They do not have that cash. They are going to have to pay up to $100 a kilo for HFCs after 1 July. They cannot afford that.

Labor is shrinking their capacity to survive as food producers for this country. This Prime Minister has told us that she thinks the food-growing prospects for our nation are wonderful and that we could perhaps even double our food production in the next two years and meet the growing global demand. At the same time, she is making it impossible for our food producers to survive in her new carbon taxed environment. Come the next 38 days we will see a shrinking of industry right across Australia but particularly in the food-growing areas. (Time expired)