Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr Deputy President, I rise to take note of all answers to all questions asked by coalition senators. With five days to go, the continuing denial and arrogance of this Labor government beggars belief. I would like to draw the attention of the Senate to the young people Senator Crossin mentioned and how they feel about this tax and our plans for addressing climate change. What the government needs to understand is that Australians actually do not want the carbon tax. They did not vote for it. They are screaming from their rooftops and through poll after poll and letters to the editor that they do not want it. What the young people here today in our parliament are here to learn is that we live in a democracy. Our role as representatives in our democracy is to reflect the will of the people and conduct ourselves in a way that allows the will of the people to be expressed. Time and time again, this Labor government simply does not get it right.

What the Australian people do know is that this carbon tax will severely affect our international competitiveness. I heard reference to the international perspective on this particular issue. We know that in three months under this current proposal Australians will pay what the Europeans have paid in over six years. Those are the sorts of brakes we are talking about putting on the Australian economy. In his answer, Minister Kim Carr asked us a question: why do we oppose these payments? It is because—and we will not talk about the self-funded retirees—there is no environmental gain to be had from these payments. The reason we oppose them is that we oppose waste. It is quite simple.

Small business is nowhere in the government's response to this. In fact, they are trying to gag small business on the very real impacts that this tax will have on running a small business in this country, with fines of $1.1 million.

Senator Crossin interjecting—

Dairy farmers are nowhere, Senator Crossin, and you know it. You know the impost that this particular tax will have on that sector of the agricultural industry, a huge contributor to exporters in my own state, and you have nothing for them—$5,000 to $7,000 per year just for getting the milk out the farm gate, let alone the processing costs, the transport costs and the refrigeration costs come 2014. Employees in the food-processing sector and employees in trucking from 2014 are nowhere in your plan.

A third of Australians live outside the capital cities and, once again, Labor have demonstrated so clearly that they do not get us. They demonstrate that they simply do not get us in policy after policy. Whether it is youth allowance, education or health, they have nothing for us outside capital cities. We are passionate about our environment. We live in it and we work with it every single day of our lives, and yet here we are bearing the brunt yet again of Labor's failed policies. Our councils are bearing the brunt of your policies. For Wagga Wagga it is $660,000. In Bendigo in my own home state it is $1.2 million, reflective of a potential 1.7 per cent increase in rates for local Bendigonians.

This will affect our exporters. Forty thousand people are directly employed by the dairy industry, and the largest exporter off our docks every day in Victoria—and I see Senator Kroger and Senator Fifield, fellow Victorians, are here—is Murray-Goulburn, a dairy producer. This will affect our social way of life out in the regions. We use our cars a lot to get to football games, hospitals and community meetings. We use a lot of petrol or diesel. This will impact on our social way of life. Most importantly for us, our industries, such as our abattoirs and the food-manufacturing sector—the largest manufacturing sector in Australia with 225,000 employees, most of them located in the regions—will be severely impacted by this Labor Party policy.

Minister Wong skiting about ALP investment in regional Australia is a farce because when you are on the side of politics that counts everywhere as regional Australia it just makes the comment a real joke. I love the Cats, but $10 million for Skilled Stadium just does not fly in Strathfield or Seymour. We are over it. Australians know the carbon tax is a con. It is not going to change behaviour. Most concerning is that it is not going to assist the environment or change the climate.

Question agreed to.