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

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I was part of the Senate Select Committee on the Scrutiny of New Taxes, and I thought it would be appropriate for me to say a few words and particularly respond to Senator Marshall. Senator Marshall has said that we all have to do this. I accept that; I do not mind if we all do it and no-one pays the penalty and the rest of the world does it. I will accept it, and I think we would all accept it. I do not know—I never get into the detail—whether science is right or wrong, because I do not think it matters whether science is right or wrong. What matters is whether we can make a change. There is no point in Australia, with 1.4 per cent of the world's emissions, going out unilaterally trying to do something. After heavy questioning to the Treasury and the climate change department, the committee were told: 'Don't worry about it. Everyone in the world is going to come to a position by 2016 and we will all be committed globally to reducing carbon, in one way or another. Although Australia, New Zealand and the EU will be the only ones that will have a carbon tax.' So somehow miraculously everyone will be reducing carbon. I have a reasonably inquisitive mind, so I said, 'What is America going to do?' They said: 'Nothing. They have a couple of states with carbon taxes that don't really amount to much.' I said, 'What is Japan doing?' They said, 'Nothing, until America does something.' I said, 'What is India going to do?' They said: 'They cannot afford it. They are impoverished. There would be riots in the streets if they tried to increase the price of food, increase the price of cement and increase the price of steel. They have millions and millions of unemployed, so they can't do it.'

Senator Back would understand why I went to Jakarta to try to sort out the diabolical mess with the live cattle trade. When I saw the poverty there, I thought: 'How are these people going to cope with an increase in the price of food, an increase in the price of electricity and an increase in the price of steel? They have nothing.' It is so obvious that even if the rest of the world wanted to, and they don't, they could not. What we are doing here is an exercise in futility. Not only is it an exercise in futility because the rest of the world will not do it; the savings we make will be spent in one day by 2020. The 54 million tonnes that we are going to save will be blown by one day's effort in China.

When I first came to this place the Labor Party had a range of people. There were graziers like Peter Walsh, solicitors, doctors, retailers and waterside workers—people who actually did things. They had a world of experience. They understood what the world was all about. They had been in the real world. What do we have on the Labor side now? We have a bunch of party hacks and union hacks who are told when to put their hands up, and if they don't, they are told, 'Don't come knocking at the door for preselection next time because it will not be open to you.'

What we have on the other side is a bunch of people who have had no life experience. They would not know a market if they fell over one. They have never had to go out and put a pay packet in someone's pocket every week. We are being led by people who have no life experience. It is a tragedy. If you look at this side of the chamber, you will see we have farmers, accountants, a vet, a fisherman, a paint salesman, a winemaker and a carpenter, and we have a great range of experience across the whole spectrum. On the other side, they have union hacks who have never had the slightest bit of experience in the real world. Yes, they have stood over some workers and told them, 'Put your hands up and if you don't, you'll be in serious trouble.' That is not experience. Experience is going onto the factory floor and worrying, 'How am I going to pay those nine people?'

I got a letter yesterday from one of Queensland's leading fishmongers, Morgans Seafood. They have a restaurant and a reasonable sized coldroom. The electricity cost for the restaurant will increase by $8,000 and for the coldroom by $18,000—totalling $26,000. Mr Morgan does not mind me mentioning this; in fact, he encouraged me to mention it. He said: 'I employ 30 to 40 people. How am I going to do it?' He is going to battle to do it. He can do it a couple of ways. He can put up the price of his fish and chips. He can put up the price of his prawns. But a point will come when no-one will buy and that point will be reached very soon. Those are the sorts of stories the committee heard as it went right around Australia. We listened to the nickel industry and the sugar industry, and all the industries said these same things. We moved from one town to the other as we took evidence and we found time after time that these things came through. 'Things are tough.' 'The dollar is high'. 'How are we going to compete?'

Senator Back said it was going to cost the abattoir industry a quarter of a million dollars. I know two abattoirs that have costed their carbon emissions and their renewable energy costs at $3 million. If you work that back, it will mean $7 to $8 a beast by the time you put in increased transport costs. Those abattoirs are competing on a worldwide market. They are not competing in Australia; they are competing against America, Canada and Brazil. We have top producers, but no producer can cop a high dollar and then cop a carbon tax. If you put in a thousand head of cattle—and that is large—it will mean $8,000 off your income. There is no way in the world that an abattoir can pay an extra $8 to compensate the farmers. They will have to pay producers $8 less just to be competitive to sell overseas. That will mean $8 for every beast that goes through Australia. It is going to hurt the graziers—of course, it is—yet the government come in here and say what a wonderful thing they are doing for farmers. It is going to hurt the graziers. It is going to hurt the graziers but, by gee, it is not going to hurt the graziers as much as it is going to hurt those people who trust the Labor Party and pay their union fees because they think you people are looking after them. The Electrical Trades Union, Senator Cameron's union, and the mining industry union are kicking into the Greens. Would you believe, people are sitting over there representing unions that are paying Greens campaign fees? Isn't this the craziest thing in the world? If you believe in the Greens, go and sit with the Greens. If you believe in the Greens, do not sit with the ALP and pick up the tab and pay them.

In the last few seconds I have, we were told—and this is not a Ron Boswell figure; it was produced by economists—that there is going to be a cost of about a trillion dollars. We are going to keep our lights on and we are going to have to pay that by the year 2050. What are we signing up for here? Why are we putting this great encumbrance— (Time expired)