Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the impact of the carbon tax on Western Australia? How will repealing the carbon tax help Western Australia's key industries.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forrest for her question. Like the Prime Minister I do not understand why the Labor Party, in opposition, would try to defend the carbon tax. After promising before the 2010 election not to introduce a carbon tax, they then introduced a carbon tax after the election. Before the last election they said they were going to terminate the carbon tax, but now they are voting to keep it. They are entirely inconsistent with whatever they say before an election. The impact on the people of Western Australia is significant. Last year alone—

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is right, it is consistency. I take the interjection. It is consistent to be inconsistent. That is the Labor Party's approach, because last year alone the carbon tax cost Western Australians $600 million. Even economic modelling commissioned from Treasury by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments identified that the negative impact on the Western Australian economy would be significant. Manufacturing output would be hit. In fact, if you get rid of the carbon tax, manufacturing output in Western Australia will increase by nearly 3.5 per cent over the next 16 years. On the same basis, construction output in Western Australia will improve by nearly one per cent. Gross state product in Western Australia will improve by nearly one per cent—all because you get rid of the carbon tax. Keeping the carbon tax actually hurts Western Australia, just as keeping the carbon tax hurts Australia. It detracts from economic growth, and of course GDP would be 0.3 per cent lower than otherwise in 2020 as a result of the carbon tax. It will cost the Australian economy $1 trillion by 2050 if the carbon tax remains in place.

So why does the Labor Party not want to get rid of the carbon tax? They go to Western Australia and say to the people of Western Australia, 'We are getting rid of the carbon tax. We are opposed to the carbon tax.' Then they come back to Canberra and they vote to keep it. Only today, just an hour ago, the Labor Party was so appalled about the impact of the mining tax on Western Australia that a few minutes ago in the Senate they voted to keep the mining tax. They really care about Western Australia, because every time they come to Canberra they do everything they possibly can to make life harder for the people of Western Australia.