Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The apocalypse is apparently coming. Dangerous climate change is what the minister says. Every minister and every government backbencher, together with the Greens, the member for Lyne, the member for New England and the member for Dennison, stand by the fundamental belief that climate change is dangerous and that extreme weather will occur because of human activity. They also stand by the position that CO2 must be reduced to slow or halt the effects of climate change. The government tells us that, without the carbon tax, oceans will rise and extreme weather patterns will take place; droughts will occur, Perth will become a ghost metropolis, there will be no snow left at our ski fields, Sydney will run out of water—and the list of climate change disasters goes on.

It certainly seems—whether through popular culture, education in our schools, or the statements of Tim Flannery who has made many ludicrous claims—that the available public information is overwhelmingly one-sided. Indeed, alternative views in the science world have been suppressed, as research funding is virtually impossible to obtain if you seek to address matters inconsistent with the theory of human-induced global warming, whereas research funding that makes mention of climate change has a greatly increased chance of being funded.

I am pleased that the government and others line up in support of the carbon tax, when a majority of the rest of the country is against it. The question that this terrible government should be asking is: why don't the majority of Australians believe the government? Before the 2010 election, government members all lined up against the carbon tax and are now all for it, because the sheep follow the feed.

It is not, however, my intention to offer a view of the future but rather to remind the House that those on the other side saved their political hides by saying no to a carbon tax before the election, and then held on to government through a deal with the Greens and bringing in a carbon tax after the election. For that betrayal of the Australian people I will now talk about what they will deliver to the Australian people.

It is interesting that the concept behind the world's biggest carbon tax is to change behaviour: increased costs of carbon emissions so that people use less emissions and then everyone will feel they are 'doing their bit'. It does sound great, but the problem is that the 294 'biggest polluters' will, if they can, lift their prices to cover their extra costs. Those costs cascade down the line, piling up until they reach the consumer in suburbs like Girrawheen, Ashby, Tapping or Greenwood. For those people the money the Labor government has collected from the alleged polluters will be given back in compensation in certain cases. That will mean that some of the alleged polluters will be able to pass on the carbon tax costs so they do not have to change their emissions and consequently their behaviour.

There are two groups that are wearing this tax: those that do not get the government's compensation and those big employers that cannot pass on the costs down the line, normally because they trade overseas or compete with untaxed overseas businesses or with imported goods. Therefore the impact of this deceitful tax will be to make our manufacturing sector, our exporters of commodities and others in Cowan, less competitive. Already manufacturing is suffering and jobs are being lost, and this outcome will be made worse by this. The Chinese manufacturers of steel, using coal-fired power stations and with worse pollution controls, will be even more competitive than Polyplastics in Wangara that uses gas-fired power and has great pollution control. This means the loss of more market share and more jobs in Cowan. There is a middle-sized engineering company in the electorate of Cowan that has informed me that the uncertainty around the carbon tax has resulted in a dramatic hold of jobs from smaller companies. This company is not getting as many jobs as it would like to have.

I should say that consumers in Cowan that are not given the government handouts may be forced to buy less at the shops at Wanneroo Central, Kingsway or Ballajura City shopping centres, so already-struggling retail will in effect be hit again. I wonder how Kel's Menswear will go at Warwick Grove or Murray's Sportspower will go at Kingsway, with reduced spending courtesy of Labor's world's biggest carbon tax. The outcome of this carbon tax will be fewer jobs in Cowan's manufacturing and retail sector and, if enough businesses go out of business, perhaps even a slowing of emissions growth. The question then becomes: for the business closures and the pain suffered by Cowan constituents and workers, how much better will the world be? What will have changed in temperatures? For the pain of the world's biggest carbon tax, the temperature of the world will not reduce any more than it has already in recent years. CO2 will not be lowered; there will be no change. In fact, it will be economic pain for no environmental gain. In the end, will anyone really be better off with this whole pathetic plan? The answer is that it will not be better for anyone, but over there on the government benches it will be far worse. It certainly will not be better for Australians on the streets of Cowan or anywhere else across the nation as prices prove to be higher than anticipated. It will be no gain, all pain and the people will look for someone to blame. Everyone knows who that will be: the Labor party. (Time expired)