Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I was diverted by an unlawful interjection. There has been talk of compensation. But I have not heard of any talk of compensation for states. Nor have I heard about compensation for local governments. So I just wonder how the Commonwealth Grants Commission is going to make equitable distributions to these utilities for the additional costs they will have to pay.

I mentioned only electricity, but councils are big users of fuel. Is the Brisbane City Council going to get additional funding for all of the buses they run? Was there something said about that? Perhaps there was. Is there additional funding for all of the transport costs that will increase with all the graders, bulldozers and rollers that are used by councils and the Queensland government? I have not heard anything about this compensation. So I wonder what my state of Queensland is going to do when the carbon tax comes in and it has to spend more money on paying tax to the Commonwealth without, as far as I can recall, any word said by the Commonwealth Gillard government about any compensation for state governments and local governments for the additional funds that they will be called upon to spend.

This is something that the Grants Commission will have to seriously look at, because they try to equalise in a vertical way—or is it a horizontal way?—the costs on each state, but some states will use more electricity. For example, will our state, because it has big air-conditioning bills—local governments up our way have big air-conditioning bills; it is a big cost—get more out of the Commonwealth Grants Commission's allocation? I do not know, but it is going to mean that this same report, the Commonwealth Grants Commission report, for 2013-14 will be a fascinating document to see how the Grants Commission addresses that issue.