Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Nash is correct to ask the question: why not? Senator Nash, we all know the answer. If the Prime Minister of Australia and the Australian Labor Party actually took this legislation to the people and said, 'Do you want a carbon tax?' the Australian people would resoundingly vote no. The Australian Labor Party know that. They have fooled Australians once and the Australian people have made it very clear they will not be fooled again by the members and senators of the Australian Labor Party. They know that the imposition of a carbon tax in Australia is nothing more and nothing less than a political choice because the Labor Party have gone into an unholy alliance with the Greens; it is not an environmental necessity.

When Australians are promised something as fundamental as 'there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead' hours before they go to cast their vote in relation to who will ultimately lead them and they vote on the basis of that promise, and then the Australian Labor Party led by Ms Gillard is unable to go through with that promise, there is only one thing that the government can do—that is, exactly what Mr Howard did in relation to the GST: take the major policy change to an election. You were elected on the basis of a mandate and that mandate was that you would not introduce a carbon tax. You do not have a mandate to stand here in this place today and debate this legislation. Do what Mr Howard did and take it to the Australian people. If you are so sure that this is the right thing for Australians, take it to an election and show us on this side of the chamber that we are wrong. You will not, because each one of you, in particular those in marginal seats in the other place, knows that as each day goes by and we creep towards the next federal election it is one day less that you are going to be in this place because you betrayed your constituents. You betrayed the people of Australia. If there is one thing that Australians do not like, it is being called stupid. That is exactly what the Labor Party has said to the people of Australia.

The coalition, on the other hand, has made if very clear what its position is in relation to the carbon tax. We will continue until the final vote is taken in this place to oppose this toxic tax whilst in opposition. If we are not successful in opposing it, when we are elected the very first order of business for a coalition government will be to rescind this toxic legislation. We have also made it very clear to the people of Australia that, if we are elected, we will have a mandate to repeal this toxic legislation. If the Australian Labor Party do not want to listen to that mandate, we will have the guts to go to a double dissolution. That is how sure the coalition is of its position in relation to the carbon tax. Why? Because Labor's toxic tax means this for Australians: a $9 billion hit a year. For the mums and dads of Australia it means a 10 per cent hike in their electricity bills. For the mums and dads of Australia it means a nine per cent hike in their gas bills. This is in the first year alone. After the first year, all of those prices just keep going up. It means a higher marginal tax rate for many low- and middle-income earners. It also means a $4.3 billion hit for the Australian budget bottom line. Translate that into the cost per year for mums and dads and you are looking at potentially in excess of $515 per year, and that is just for starters.

These are the mums and dads of Australia who do not have a lot. They work hard to pay their taxes because they are proud. They work hard to put their children through school because they believe in giving them a good education. Occasionally they might have a little bit of discretionary income left over at the end of the week, which they might able to take their kids out to dinner with. Once this toxic carbon tax goes through, it is all over. There will be no discretionary income left for the mums and dads of Australia because any income that they may have had left over at the end of the week will be going to pay for Labor's toxic carbon tax. The carbon tax will be a trillion-dollar cost to the Australian economy over the coming decades. But when you talk about trillions under the current government it really does not mean a lot. It was millions and then it was billions, and now, when we look at the Australian Labor Party's economic incompetence, we are now talking about trillions of dollars. Who would ever have thought we would be standing in this place and talking about hits to the economy in terms of trillions? These trillions of dollars can be put down solely to economic mismanagement by the Australian Labor Party.

What is worse is that not only will the mums and dads of Australia be paying more under this toxic carbon tax but the only people who are going to be getting rich are foreign carbon traders. How is that for hypocrisy? In order to convince itself that this policy actually does mean something—that it is not all economic pain for no environmental gain—what will the Australian Labor Party do? It will spend in excess of $3.5 billion each year on purchasing foreign carbon credits. Good grief! By 2050, that will rise to $57 billion. In economic terms that is the equivalent of 1.5 per cent of GDP—not that those types of figures mean anything to anybody on the other side. So while the mums and dads of Australia are losing their jobs, their ability to pay their bills and their ability to take the kids out to dinner, foreign carbon traders will be making billions of dollars under a toxic scheme put forward by the Australian Labor Party. If that is not policy that is not in the national interest, I do not know what is.

Unlike those on this side of the chamber, Labor senators and, more so, members in the other place, are going to have to answer to their electorates when we face the next election. They are going to have to go to their constituents and say: 'We are deliberately inflicting this pain on you. We told you one thing before the 2010 election, you voted on the basis of a lie and, now that we are in government, we have taken the deliberate decision to inflict pain on you. We are deliberately introducing a policy which we know will increase your electricity bills, which we know will increase your gas bills, which we know will increase your cost of living and which we also know will have no effect on emissions reductions at all.' In fact, the government's own modelling, which it has released, actually confirms that as of 1 July next year when it introduces the carbon tax—which is allegedly going to solve all of the environmental problems in the world—the domestic emissions in Australia will actually increase. That is right—the Labor Party's own modelling shows that domestic emissions will in fact increase in the period 2012-20 from 578 million tonnes to—lo and behold!—621 million tonnes.

So not only were the people of Australia told the day before the 2010 election that if the Australian Labor Party were elected it would not impose this tax; they are now having a tax imposed on them, allegedly for environmental gain, while the government's own modelling shows domestic emissions in Australia will actually rise. Do you know how we offset that, Mr Acting Deputy President? It is a very devious form of policy making. If the government purchases with billions of dollars those carbon credits from foreign traders, somehow that assuages all of our guilt and suddenly we are doing the right thing. Mums and dads of Australia, guess what? You pay while the foreign carbon traders earn billions of dollars off the Australian Labor Party.

Hypocrisy, duplicity, disloyalty and betrayal—these are the words that the people of Australia are now using to describe the Australian Labor Party. Given the Labor government's betrayal of the people of Australia, it is patently true that Labor's continual claims that it alone is the party that looks after the workers is just more Labor rhetoric. Labor members know that the new Labor has turned its back on Australians and it has turned its back on traditional Labor values, and they are waiting to punish new Labor at the next election. (Time expired)