Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are now six days away from the launch of the carbon tax—the tax that dares not speak its name. I would like to use this opportunity to advise the people of Herbert and Townsville just what to watch out for. The government talk a good game—they do not even mention the tax in any of the ads. They will tell you that they are overcompensated for the tax. But what is the truth? We will find out in the months ahead, but there are a few things about which I think you should be very aware.

Those people who will be receiving compensation must realise that it stops at the front door. It will not help you with the costs incurred by business. It will not help you with the food you buy, the bus you catch, the repairs to your roads, the dump where you take your rubbish or the council trucks that collect your bin. All of those costs have to be passed on. Of course, businesses have the option to absorb the costs themselves, but we all know what has to happen: the costs will be passed on to the consumer.

I have talked to my butcher, Paul Bonner, from Sunvale Meats. He employs 12 staff and provides excellent service and sells excellent product. There are a few very good butchers in Townsville so he knows that presentation, service and product all go hand in hand. His power supplier has advised him that his electricity bill will go up by as much as 22 per cent from 1 July. He does not want to hurt his customers but he cannot absorb the costs either. He will never sacrifice service, product or presentation, and his staff are central to that premise. He may simply have to pass on the costs.

In Friday's Townsville Bulletin the owners of Lamberts Produce told how they are buying up big before 1 July to try and get the last of the quality cheap product. Tom Kennedy, a partner in Lamberts, said:

I hope the government bean counters have got it right. This carbon tax is going to bite—I expect more than what the Government wants us to believe. If it wasn't, why are they handing out all this money in payments to households?

Why indeed?

I received a letter from a constituent, Scott, who stated the case on the cost of refrigerant gases. He told me about the sale of HC refrigerant gases from 1 July. The carbon tax will be huge on these gases. Today, a normal re-gas for a commercial fridge will cost you around $80. From 1 July, due to the carbon tax, it will cost over $250. There are two issues here. Firstly, the refrigeration mechanics who do this work will now be exposed to a greater number of defaults, which will eat into their cash flow, thus eroding their business plans. Secondly, HC gases R600 and R290 are butane and propane based and are currently unregulated. If we do not watch out, we will have people going into hardware stores and doing it themselves at home. This, my friends, could be very dangerous to a lot of people.

You will see every business which uses electricity cop it from this tax. Bakers, by the very nature of their business, are heavy power users as compared to the dress shop next door in the shopping centre. Their costs will rise, as will the cost of the bread you buy. So, please, when you turn up and it costs you more for your bread, don't blame the kid behind the counter. Blame this government.

When the shadow minister for the environment, Greg Hunt, asked the Prime Minister a question today about the rising cost of power for small business, she ducked and dived. She did not answer or even address the question because she knows full well, as does her government, what is going to happen here. But, then again, this government does not care about small business and it certainly does not care about the people who will pay this poorly constructed, poorly consulted carbon tax. And to what end? By how much will our carbon output drop? Nothing. It will rise, and we will have to spend between $3 billion and $5 billion buying carbon credits from countries overseas to 'meet our targets'. All this money churn and it does nothing. Fair dinkum, you would have to be as thick as railway china to come up with this idea. Make no mistake, a coalition government will rescind this bad, bad tax and will replace it with something that works, that will drive down the use of carbon in our atmosphere but do it in a way that actually does something in Australia not overseas. This side of the House under Tony Abbott will provide the people of Herbert, Townsville, and North Queensland with hope for a better world, the reward for effort, and opportunity for everyone in my city, my region and my state to provide for themselves, their families and their future generations.