Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to evidence given to the Select Committee on the Scrutiny of New Taxes last Wednesday when the Secretary of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Mr Blair Comley, said and confirmed that under the government's proposed legislation the carbon tax would in fact apply to fuel from 1 July 2012. Given this admission, will the minister now also admit that this means that around 60,000 Australian businesses will have to pay the carbon tax directly as of 1 July 2012, not just the 500 the government misleadingly claims, and that about 100,000 businesses will have to pay it from 1 July 2014, not just the 500 that the government misleadingly claims.