Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline how the carbon tax has increased the cost of doing business and how the repeal of the carbon tax will help build infrastructure and further regional development in Western Australia?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The people of Pearce, and all Western Australians, know that the carbon tax is having an ongoing, significant impact on Western Australians and their cost of living. It impacts on pensioners and small business and on the biggest miners. It is a drag on our economy that we simply cannot afford. So I am sure the member for Pearce, like me, was pleasantly surprised to read in the newspaper in Western Australia this morning that the No. 1 candidate on the Western Australian Labor Senate ticket declared boldly, for all the voters of Western Australia to see: 'Labor is scrapping the carbon tax.'

Unfortunately for the lead member of the Senate team in Western Australia, the very same day, just hours after it appeared in the West Australian newspaper, the Western Australian senators voted to keep the carbon tax. So the candidate aspiring to be elected says, 'We will get rid of the carbon tax,' while those who have actually been elected vote against it. That is Labor's strategy; they do one thing in Perth and Western Australia and do a different thing when they get to Canberra—they do the opposite. If Labor is serious about scrapping the tax they could have given credibility to Mr Bullock's claims this very day.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Grayndler will desist or leave! It is your choice.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They had the opportunity to vote out the carbon tax and they did not take it. Labor says one thing and does the opposite. Of course the longer Labor persists with this kind of deception and dishonesty we will have Western Australian people paying more than $600 million a year in carbon tax costs—costs for families, costs for doing business in Western Australia, costs they cannot afford and costs our economy cannot afford but which Western Australian Labor senators are obviously dedicated to keeping.

The coalition was elected with a mandate to get rid of the carbon tax. The voters have spoken! They want the carbon tax axed. They want to get rid of it. Labor has the opportunity now to make sure that that mandate can be delivered. Save the people of Western Australia, the struggling families, this unnecessary cost. Don't talk about doing it when you are seeking election and then do the opposite when you have the opportunity.