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

Today the government reintroduces the Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013. As I said back in November of last year when I introduced this bill for the first time, the Australian people have already voted on this bill and now the parliament again gets its chance. The people have spoken, and now it is up to this parliament to show that it has listened.

The Australian people pronounced their judgement against the carbon tax. They want it gone and this bill delivers. It delivers on the coalition's commitment to the Australian people to scrap this toxic tax.

The budget that the government delivered recently was tough but it was visionary. It was about setting this country on the path to long-term structural change. But a cornerstone of this government's plan for a stronger economy, for lower taxes, for less regulation and for stronger businesses, is the repeal of the carbon tax.

The first impact of this bill will be on households whose overall costs will fall by about $550 a year on average. Because of this bill, household electricity bills will be around $200 lower next financial year without the carbon tax.

Household gas bills will be about $70 lower next financial year without the carbon tax. Prices for groceries, for household items for services will fall, because the price of power is embedded in every price in our economy.

This is a bill to reduce the bills of the Australian people. That is what it is. It is a bill to reduce the bills of the people of Australia.

When the price of power comes down, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be ready to ensure that these price reductions are passed onto households and to businesses.

But—and this is important—family and pensioners will keep the tax cuts and the benefit increases already provided. The carbon tax will go but the carbon tax compensation will stay so that every Australian should be better off.

Repealing the carbon tax will reduce costs for all Australian businesses—for every single one of them.

The previous government said and argued that only big business paid the carbon tax, but this simply was not true. Every small business paid the carbon tax through higher electricity and gas bills and higher costs for suppliers.

As well the carbon tax acts as a reverse tariff. Not only does the carbon tax make it more difficult for Australian businesses to compete abroad; it makes it more difficult for domestic businesses to compete at home, because there is no carbon tax on imports.

Repealing the carbon tax removes over 1,000 pages of primary and subordinate legislation. Repealing the carbon tax cuts the size of the climate change bureaucracy. So repealing the carbon tax will reduce the cost of living, make jobs more secure and improve the competitive position of our country. That is what it does. It reduces the cost of living, it makes jobs more secure and it improves the competitive position of our country. Why would anyone be against that is? Particularly, when it is what the Australian people voted for.

Repealing the carbon tax is what the employers and the jobs providers of our country want now. The Business Council of Australia, for instance, supports the wind-up of the current carbon pricing mechanism, because it places excessive costs on business and households and because our carbon charge is now one of the highest in the world—that is what the BCA says about the carbon tax.

The carbon tax has ripped through the economy hitting schools, hospitals, nursing homes, charities, churches, council swimming pools and community centres. It has hit each and every group, and each and every individual that uses power. That was always its goal to make electricity more expensive. That was the intention of the previous government to put power prices up, because that was their way of reducing emissions.

The intention of the new government, of this government, is to put power prices down by axing this toxic tax and by using other means to reduce emissions. By reducing the cost of electricity and gas we will help to make households better off, workers more secure and our economy stronger.

No-one should be in any doubt—the government is repealing the carbon tax in full. We are repealing the carbon tax in full. We are doing what we were elected to do. Others have said that they would terminate the carbon tax, but they were only renaming it. Well, we are not renaming it; we are abolishing the carbon tax in full.

Repealing the carbon tax at the end of the financial year provides certainty for business and it simplifies the transition. It means that the government will not be proceeding with the previous government's legislated carbon tax increase that would have taken effect from 1 July.

Unfortunately, the new government cannot undo the past. We can only make the future better, and that is precisely what we intend to do. Under this government the carbon tax will not apply from 1 July, so there will be no need for further compensation packages. We will end the merry-go-round of carbon tax industry assistance that takes from one pocket and puts less back in the other.

We will ensure that the benefits of repealing the carbon tax are passed on to consumers. The ACCC will have further powers to take action against any business that engages in price exploitation in relation to the carbon tax repeal. There will be penalties of up to $1.1 million for corporations and $220,000 for individuals.

It is prudent to do what we reasonably can to reduce carbon emissions, but we do not believe in ostracising any particular fuel and we do not believe in harming economic growth. Climate change is a serious issue and we do have strong policies to come into place so that we do rest lightly on the planet. The government is repealing the carbon tax because there is a less complicated and less costly way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a way that will actually reduce emissions and will not damage the economy.

So we will scrap the carbon tax and then proceed with our direct action plan. The centrepiece of this direct action plan will be the Emissions Reduction Fund, a market-based mechanism for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a fund that provides a powerful and direct additional incentive for businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The $2.55 billion fund will use positive incentives to reduce Australia's emissions and it will prioritise cost-effective targeted means to do so. It is an incentive based approach that will support Australian businesses and households to lower their energy costs at the same time as reducing Australia's emissions. It will see us plant more trees, get more carbon captured in soils, clean up power stations and use smarter technology. We believe that by the time the five per cent reduction kicks in in 2020 we will have an overall reduction in our emissions of some 22 per cent off 2000 levels of business as usual. This is serious action about a significant problem.

The carbon tax is a $9 billion hit on our economy this year alone. It is a $9 billion hit on jobs, a $9 billion burden on investment and a $9 billion burden on Australians that we just do not need. This bill gets rid of it. This bill is the government's bill to reduce the Australian people's bill, so I commend the bill to the House. I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Debate adjourned.