John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute on taking note of the answers to questions today. How embarrassing it must be for the Labor government. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.’ That was on Channel 10 on 16 August 2010. But now Prime Minister Gillard has announced that there will be a carbon tax. That raises the question, if there is going to be no carbon tax under the government that Ms Gillard leads, who is leading the government? She is obviously not, because she has said. ‘There will be no carbon tax under any government I lead.’

Of course, it went on. On the Friday before the election, Ms Gillard stated categorically, ‘I rule out a carbon tax.’ It was on the front page of the Australian on 20 August 2010. Treasurer Wayne Swan said, ‘What we rejected is this hysterical allegation that somehow we are moving towards a carbon tax.’ That was on Meet the Press on 15 August 2010. Mr Swan again, on 12 August 2010, on The 7.30 Report, said: ‘We have made our position very clear. We have ruled it out.’

But now it is in. This is a broken promise of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. Of course, now they are throwing around the lollies—the compensation. First it was Minister Combet, then Minister Crean: 100 per cent of the tax collected will go toward compensation to households. And now Professor Garnaut has said that 50 per cent—that is his recommendation—will go to households. It is amazing to have an economist who is such an expert on science. He has read one side of the equation. I wonder if he ever listened to Professor Latif, one of the key advisors to the IPCC, who said that in actual fact the globe has been cooling from the late 1990s and will continue to cool for the next 10 to 20 years. No, they are not allowed to listen to that; they only listen to one side, obviously—Professor Garnaut.

This carbon tax, according to the spin put on it by the government, is to bring certainty into Australia. As my leader, Warren Truss, said, ‘The only thing certain about the carbon tax is shifting industries overseas.’ We had an announcement in February that there will be a carbon tax. Prime Minister Gillard and Minister Combet, flanked by the de facto Prime Minister of Australia, Senator Bob Brown, and his deputy, Senator Milne, and the Independents—Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor—announced that we are going to have a carbon tax. One would have thought that all those who were there are in agreement. But now Mr Windsor is moving away, saying, ‘We might not have a carbon tax.’

This certainty is going to be put out to Australian businesses, industries and investment. This is what they are trying to create: certainty. How much will a carbon tax be? Will it be $20, or $26 or $30? Will it go on fuel? If it is $26 and it goes on fuel, that will be another 7c a litre. What will that cost regional Australia? In towns near where I live, everything comes in on the road; there is no rail. All the groceries, all the supplies, all the food and all the products that are in our electrical stores all come in on the road, and of course everything goes out on the road. All the beef from Bindaree Beef at Inverell, off to export every day of the week, goes out on the road. Are we going to look at an extra 7c a litre on fuel? This is a certainty.

But it gets worse. After three to five years we are going to an emissions trading scheme whereby the price of carbon will be determined by the dealers on the world market. Will it be $20 a tonne or will it be $200, as the NAB flagged at one stage? This is going to bring certainty? We have a fluctuating world price, and the size of your electricity bill will determine how the traders are going on the world market. And they call this certainty. This is just outrageous. Certainty is the last thing it will deliver. The one thing that can put certainty into our economy is to never have a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme. But no, this is a certainty being flagged by the government.

About 30 billion tonnes of CO2 are produced each year from the burning of fossil fuels. Australia produces around 370 million tonnes. If we lower ours by 70 million tonnes, what is it going to do if the rest of the world stays the same? It will bring C02 from about 380 parts per million down to about 379 parts per million. And that is going to save the world and stop it heating up? That is outrageous.