Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

Interestingly, Senator Xenophon is supporting this amendment to not have a carbon tax start until after the next election. So regardless of your view as to the intent of what the Prime Minister said before the last election, the Australian people deserve to be able to have a say on this piece of legislation, which they have been denied by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Labor government. That is just simply wrong. That is why we are moving this amendment. It is so the Australian people can have their voices heard and have their say, because, goodness knows, they have not had an opportunity to do that up until now. Obviously, with the Greens and Labor banding together in their usual coalition form, it looks like they still will not get a say. We can tell that this amendment is not going to be successful. Much as we hoped it would be, we can tell it is not going to be successful.

One of the things about this legislation, this carbon tax, is the impost that it is going to place on our agricultural communities. It is quite extraordinary. The government like to say that agriculture is not included. When they say that, they refuse to properly and correctly say that agricultural emissions are not included. I can tell you, colleagues, as you all well know, the financial burden that is going to be faced by our farmers because of the introduction of this carbon tax is going to be huge. Electricity, fuel, fertiliser and transport will be affected, just for starters. There is nowhere for those costs to be passed on to. Farmers are the bottom of the food chain and there is nowhere for those costs to be passed on to. That might not be a concern for the government but that greatly concerns me and my colleagues on this side of the chamber in the coalition.

I would like to ask the minister if she could perhaps enlighten the chamber on what modelling has been done to determine the average electricity cost increase across the farming community. I understand the minister may not have specific details, but I am interested in even just an average cost increase across those communities. Also, what assistance, if any, has been considered by the government or is in place to assist those farmers with the increased electricity costs?