Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

) ( ): My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the impact of the carbon tax on the Australian economy? What are the economic benefits of scrapping the carbon tax, particularly on my home state of Queensland?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McPherson for her question and I thank her for her concern to do the right thing by the people of Queensland and the people of Australia. There is no doubt the carbon tax was, is and always will be an act of economic self-harm. If you look at the former government's own figures, by 2050 Australia's cumulative gross domestic product would have been $1 trillion less with the carbon tax than it would have been without the carbon tax. We would have been $1 trillion poorer with the carbon tax than without the carbon tax under the former government's own figures. It is as if our economy would to close down for a whole year as a result of the impact of the carbon tax.

But that is not all. Under the former government's own figures, by 2050 national income per person would have been almost $5,000 less with the carbon tax than without the carbon tax. Real wages would have been six per cent less with the carbon tax than without the carbon tax. These are the dire consequences for ordinary working Australians of the carbon tax that members opposite still support—only they never had the guts to be honest about it with the Australian people before the election.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The honourable member for Isaacs will desist!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under the former government's own figures: by mid-century, output in the aluminium industry would be 61 per cent less with the carbon tax than without it and output in the iron and steel industry would be 20 per cent less with the carbon tax than without it. And something that should haunt every member opposite: on the Labor Party's own figures, households are $550 a year worse off with the carbon tax than without it. That is why this government is utterly determined to get rid of this toxic tax.

When it comes to the great state of Queensland, under the former government's own figures gross state product in Queensland would be four per cent lower by 2050 with the carbon tax than it would be without it. The carbon tax is an anti-Queensland tax, just as the mining tax is an anti-Western Australian tax. We support the great state of Queensland. That is why we are determined to scrap the carbon tax.