George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

You of all people, Senator Wong, would fail to understand the concerns of ordinary Australians living in the suburbs. You would not be concerned about the fact that, according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the effect upon a household of a $26 per tonne carbon price will be an increase in its electricity bill alone of at least $300 each year. People who are struggling to raise kids, people who are struggling to pay their mortgage, people who are struggling with higher interest rates as a result of this Labor government and people who are struggling to make ends meet just cannot afford to pay at least another $300 on their electricity bill in order to indulge the whimsy and fancy of this Labor government to give effect to a policy which is based upon a lie—the lie that there would be no carbon tax under a re-elected Labor government.

If you are a citizen of New South Wales it is worse. According to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, which is the statutory agency responsible for electricity pricing in New South Wales, for an average New South Wales household the effect of a carbon tax of $26 per tonne would be an increase in its electricity bills of at least $500 a year. Maybe those in the Labor Party, maybe those sons and daughters of the Comcar aristocracy, can afford $500 a year.