Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

It is a committee chaired by a Labor MP and deputy chaired by Senator Milne—a Labor chair and a Greens deputy chair. This is a most unorthodox approach towards this key issue for Australia's economic future, and we have today been told that the minister cannot advise the Senate as to whether the economic modelling on which the carbon tax is based has even been completed. We cannot even be told that much about this incredibly important process which is presently underway. So we have a committee which has six days to receive submissions from the Australian public about this carbon tax and no information about whether the modelling will be available before tomorrow's hearing. We are told that the government cannot tell us what the level of emissions reduction will be under their carbon tax. They cite what is going on in China and tell us that some wonderful things are happening in China, but the minister fails to mention at the same time that, according to former Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin, China's emissions will be increasing by 496 per cent between now and 2020. Again, there is no information before the Senate about those issues.

This leaves the Senate in a position where it simply does not know enough about what is going to happen with this carbon tax to make an educated, careful decision on behalf of the Australian people. Question time is the time for the government to answer questions about its tax—a tax which was conceived in deceit, a tax which the Prime Minister said would not happen under a government she led. So we roll into hearings on this vital legislation and we do not have the information necessary to make the right decisions about it.

In a week where we have discovered that Alcoa Australia is warning that Victoria's two aluminium smelters face a significant threat due to the carbon tax, in a week in which the Australian Trade and Industry Alliance has revealed that nine out of 10 manufacturing jobs are with companies that will face the full impact of the carbon tax, in a week where that same data shows that less than nine per cent of Australia's one million-plus manufacturing workers are employed by firms that will have no compensation from the Gillard government, we are entitled to be concerned and upset about the lack of information before the Senate and before its committees.

The government today offered no enlightenment on those issues whatsoever. It leads ineluctably to the question: what has this government got to hide? Why can't we put that information on the table? The government has had long enough to debate these issues, to sort out internally and with the Greens where it is heading with this carbon tax. The question is fairly asked: why can't it provide that basic information? If there is indeed Treasury modelling of the carbon tax, why isn't it on the table now, with just a couple of weeks to go before the committee that is examining this issue brings its report down and before the debate reaches the Senate? It just is not good enough.

This is a government which has deceived the Australian people from the very beginning about its carbon tax. This carbon tax will destroy jobs. This carbon tax is executed with contempt for the Australian people, because it was promised not to be executed at all. The Senate is entitled to more than it is getting from the government on this question. The government needs to come clean. When will we know the details of this tax sufficient to discharge our obligation to the Australian people to properly examine this package of 19 bills? The fact is we are not going to get that information, and the government stands condemned for being dishonest with the Australian people.