Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr Acting Deputy President: you are quite right, Senator Polley. I will do that. One day I when I am not so new I will work through those issues. It has been seven weeks since the world's biggest carbon tax began under the Gillard government. The headline on the front page of today's Advertiserthat is our home daily—reads: 'Our carbon pain: small business reeling under strain of new tax.' It states that a national survey of 186 small firms found that 50 per cent are reporting carbon tax related price hikes to power bills and other supplies. But only 33 per cent are passing their costs onto customers. Do you know why? It is because they will not let them. By the way, this paper is not exactly renowned for being all that friendly to my side of politics.

Certainly, the paper is putting it out there, right on the front page, for everybody in my state to see who is being burdened by the rising prices in South Australia, which I outlined before. They include 18 per cent on energy; 40 per cent on power bills; and, in the last generic CPI, 5.6 per cent on groceries. Goodness gracious me! And we are going to give people $10.10 in compensation. This is why there is no confidence. People are not spending their money in the businesses. They are not rushing out and buying new cars. They are not doing that. I think it is somewhat ironic that we are going to give a $5,000 benefit, an instant write-off, to business while Australian industry reels under this carbon tax. All that will do is make it more affordable for people to buy imported vehicles. The unintended consequences of this tax are profound.

Let us have a look at some of the figures for South Australia. According to the ANZ job statistics there were 18 per cent fewer job adds last month compared to the same time 12 months ago. Last month's statistics are particularly concerning, given that South Australia's unemployment rate increased to 6.4 per cent—an increase of 1.2 per cent from June. Those figures are even worse in the seat of Wakefield. The member for Wakefield, Nick Champion, presides over an unemployment rate of 9.4 per cent. In terms of anybody's maths, that is double the average for the number of Australians out of work. And what should we do? In the heavily industrialised area of the northern suburbs of Adelaide, let us put in a handbrake, let us put in a boat anchor, let us call it a carbon price and then let us see how many jobs we can create as a flow-on of that in the industrial area of the northern suburbs of Adelaide.

A Kalangadoo business in the south-east of South Australia, Pete's Fish Farm, produces rainbow trout. It will close in the next 12 months due to soaring electricity costs. His electricity rates jumped from 22.7c to 36.39c. This is just another nail in the coffin. The up-line buyers of his produce now say that they will not take any further price rises. This one is just a mess for Labor.