Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Riverina, as with each and every corner of this wide, vast land, will be hit hard with the carbon tax, and my constituents are not happy. The people I represent have every reason for feeling angry, frustrated and indeed cheated. This government has no mandate for imposing such a tax on the people against their will. Five days out from the 21 August 2010 election, the Prime Minister uttered those words which she must now truly regret: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' That is what she said. Not long after, at the behest of the Greens, with whom Labor as well as the so-called Independents cobbled together an unholy alliance to form government, the Prime Minister announced that she would be putting a price on carbon.

There you go, I have said it: a price on carbon. If I can say that, why can't those on that side utter the words 'a tax on carbon'? We all know that, essentially, that is in fact what it is: a tax. Those opposite know that it is a price, a high one, on the way people live. It is a tax on the way they live. If people are supposed to change their lifestyles to help save the planet, as decreed by Senator Bob Brown and his successor, Christine Milne, then why is Labor giving people a household assistance package to—as it claims—more than make up the difference? If that is the case, people will not alter what they are doing in order to create less carbon emissions. It makes no sense, and Labor knows it.

Labor members, nervous about their seats at the next election—which cannot come soon enough—know that their constituents are also nervous about increasing costs of living. In the Riverina, at least three local councils have been placed in the Labor-Greens carbon tax crosshairs. Griffith City Council, Wagga Wagga City Council and Coolamon Shire Council have been placed on Minister Greg Combet's carbon tax hit list because they have people who dare to take rubbish to the dump. Those people, many of them mere bush battlers, cannot understand why they will now be hit with the triple whammy of higher tip user fees, higher council rates and increased costs of living under the carbon tax.

Take for example—one example of many—Joyce Lucas, an age pensioner from the Wagga Wagga suburb of Ashmont. She is deeply concerned about how she will afford her electricity bill under the carbon tax. At present, she is struggling to pay her rent and amenities. She is currently paying three-quarters of her income to rent and bills. She is already paying $180 before usage on her gas and electricity. She is worried that the carbon tax will increase this proportion to 100 per cent, and she has been advised by Centrelink to return to work, even though she is over the retirement age and has recently been battling cancer. Her neighbours are turning off their gas because they cannot afford their heating.

Councils will pass on their carbon costs to ratepayers, and pensioners such as Joyce from Ashmont will be whacked again. It is not going to save the planet, because Australia's emissions are miniscule compared to those countries which are not imposing and have no intention to impose an economy-wide carbon tax.