Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The issue we are discussing this afternoon is one that many on our side have had to think about very seriously. The issue of carbon tax, how to deal with carbon emissions, has been on the political agenda for some time. Indeed, Mr Deputy President, you probably discussed it in your party room, when your party was in power. It was an issue, as has been outlined, that was discussed at the 2007 election and it was dealt with as a policy issue in one form or another by the previous Howard government. I say that because, as we know, this issue has taken out three political leaders in the last three years, because we are still grappling with how to deal with it.

It is all right, I suppose, for us here to consider this issue, but out in industry you and I know that they want some certainty on this. Of course there are many who are opposed to the introduction of this carbon tax. But I know—and I am pretty sure that you would know from your contacts in the wider industry and the community, Mr Deputy President—that, despite the fact that there may be opposition to it from industry, industry does want some certainty. Industry also accepts that there is going to be some control in one form or another over emissions and that there is going to be a price put on it. What the government is proposing, whether it is liked or not by the opposition, is that there will be a figure put on carbon dioxide emissions.

I do not see that necessarily industry particularly likes that—probably the big polluters are very much opposed to it—but in the end you and I know that they have already worked out a price that they are going to pay for carbon dioxide emissions. They are already budgeted for it—they have already planned for it and they already have an idea about when it will come in. If we are defeated at the next election without introducing these measures and your side becomes the government, you will introduce measures of your own of some sort—an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax. Do not get up and say that that is not the case. You have to think about this, because industry will say to you, 'We cannot continue to have this division and this debate in Australia, because we want certainty.'

As Senator Marshall said, even con­servative controlled governments have introduced a form of tax on carbon emis­sions. The actions of the Cameron Con­servative government in introducing a carbon tax in the United Kingdom must cause particular displeasure to the coalition. In New Zealand, the measures were not introduced by a conservative government but by the previous Labor government; yet they are not being overturned, because industry has sought certainty. I continue to emphasise the word 'certainty', because that is what people tell me.

I have my own views on where this is going, and in the end my view is that we have to give the community and industry some undertaking about what is going to happen. If you get into power, you will introduce measures along the same lines as the ones that we are proposing, because you will be told by the likes of Shell, and Coal and Allied, that they want something done. Please do not come in and say that this will not happen, because you and I know that it will. I think it is dishonest to suggest otherwise, because we know that measures have to be introduced, and, whether reluctantly or not, this government is proceeding to do it so that people will know in the end what they are going to pay.