Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister's decision to ambush Australian motorists with a $2.2 billion petrol tax, without a mandate from the Australian people and without the approval of the parliament. How does the Prime Minister respond to the motorist who said on Channel 7 News last night, 'Looks like we're going to have to get rid of one of the cars, because we just can't afford to run two'?

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

No-one likes any additional costs. Even 40c a week is an additional cost; I accept that. But this was an additional cost which Bob Hawke thought was something that the Australian people should have to bear, given that it was the Hawke government that introduced fuel excise indexation. So the first point I make is that, while it is an additional cost, it is the kind of cost which former Labor leaders have thought was economically responsible. While 40c a week is certainly not nothing, it is rather dwarfed by the $550-a-year saving which this government has given the households of Victoria, through scrapping the carbon tax.

Let me just remind the member who asked the question that the abolition of the carbon tax means electricity savings for Victorian families and small businesses of up to 12.4 per cent. It means savings on gas bills for Victorians of up to 10.5 per cent. I refer the member to modelling prepared for the Victorian government by Deloitte Access Economics that showed that the abolition of the carbon tax should mean 35,000 more jobs in Victoria.