Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the fact that the Lakes Entrance Fishermen's Co-operative in my electorate is facing an increase in its power bill of $24,000 this year because of the carbon tax. I also refer the Prime Minister to the statement of the general manager, Mr Dale Sumner, that 'the carbon tax will ultimately lead to the end of the co-operative or to increased costs. Fishermen are price takers. We do not have the luxury to pass the costs onto customers'. Does the Prime Minister regret telling small businesses yesterday to pass on the cost of the carbon tax when, in so many cases, they simply cannot?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the member who asked the question, we have just seen the Treasurer deal with the so-called facts from a question yesterday and, clearly, what the opposition said then was wrong so, of course, I will check what the member is putting today. But I would say to him generally, he would be well aware of what I have said in this place about small businesses over a long period of time now and the expectation we have that small businesses, including people who sell fish, are in a position to pass through costs because we have put more money in the hands of consumers.

When Prime Minister Howard was in office, he acknowledged all of these impacts of a carbon price and said it was still important that we had a carbon price in our nation so that we could reduce carbon pollution, tackle climate change and get onto using cleaner energy sources. The members of the front bench who were here in 2007 stood on that platform of supporting carbon pricing. Ever since, we have seen fear raised in the community and I am not surprised that a local business person in the member's electorate may be reflecting some of that irresponsible fear campaign because people have had to deal with a lot of nonsense over the time period since we announced our intention to price carbon. When you stand back and look at the facts of what has happened since we priced carbon, for some reason today the opposition is saying—first time ever—that it is interested in facts. Well, if it was interested in facts it would know Whyalla has not been wiped off the map, we continue to mine coal and we have seen the modest cost-of-living impacts we predicted. We have seen—

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume her seat.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order of relevance, Madam Deputy Speaker: Whyalla is a long way from Lakes Entrance, Prime Minister. I would like you to refer Lakes Entrance Fishermen's Co-operative.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a long way away and still there. That is my point. It is a long way away and still there, despite what has been claimed about carbon pricing. We always said to small businesses like the one the member refers to that there would be an impact on electricity and we would anticipate that being passed through to consumers. We have also said that we are very concerned for those small businesses. The electricity price impacts, the bigger impacts, they are seeing coming from other sources, and we are working on that as we move towards the December Council of Australian Governments meeting. Because we care about businesses like the one the member refers to, we have put in place a broad range of new policies for small businesses, including the instant asset write-off—opposed every step of the way by the member who asked the question and the opposition.