Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will speak on the Commonwealth Grants Commission report. Senator Macdonald raises some very valid issues and issues that I do not think have been addressed. This report is going to have to take note of what compensation is going to be paid. I do not believe that people have even remotely scratched the surface of what is going to happen with this carbon tax, although Senator Macdonald has raised certain issues. For instance, the price of fuel for any vehicle that is over 4½ tonnes will go up 6c per litre. The state governments and particularly the local governments with their graders and roadworks machinery are going to pay enormous increased amounts for fuel because the excise will go down. In fact, anyone who has an end loader, a bobcat or any machine that works on fuel is going to be hit not from 2013 but from 2012.

The state governments, with all their instrumentalities—hospitals and old people's homes—are going to be hit for six. Most of them are being good little Labor Party stooges and have not really raised complaints. If I were the Premier of Queensland with a bankrupt treasury, I would be screaming from the high heavens, 'How are we going to be compensated for this?' All their electricity generating plants are going to be devalued by billions of dollars. But, of course, it is not the Premier's money; it is the people of Queensland's money. The people of Queensland will be hit, not the Premier and not the government. The people's assets, which have been accumulated over hundreds of years, will be hit. Already we have the lowest certificates and when Queensland cops this on top of its already precarious financial position it will drive us down further and further. Anyhow, it will not be the Premier's worry; it will be someone else's worry. There will probably be a new government taking its place in a couple of months, certainly by March, and it will be its worry. The Premier will walk away and wash her hands of the whole thing instead of standing up now and warning the people of how much this carbon tax is going to cost them and how much it will be adjusted.

I do not know where the Commonwealth is going to get all of its money from to recompense all the states. If you add 23 per cent and about another 10 per cent for renewable energy to every bill that the state government and the local councils run up—the air conditioning, the lights—it is going to be billions of dollars. It is billions of dollars that Queenslanders are going to have to pay in higher rates and higher taxes or lose from spending on facilities.

This has not been thought through. The Labor Party were rejoicing yesterday. They are going to rejoice and then spend the next 20 years regretting. Have your couple of days in the sun and then you will regret it for the next 20 years. When everyone gets their electricity bills for the next 20 years, whether it be small business, big business, government departments or councils, they will always remember that fateful day when a carbon tax became law and everyone in the Labor Party was kissing, hugging and rejoicing. Have your day in the sun because you are going to regret it for a long, long time.