Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I trust that the senator has recovered from the vicious attack on him by Mr Costello recently. In relation to the last part of his question, the answer is: by the same amount as your policy but at lower cost to the economy, including to farmers and to households. That might be something Senator Williams might want to be aware of within the coalition party room—that he is actually signing up a policy that has the same environmental outcome but at higher costs, with tax cuts for everyone earning $80,000 each year being taken back by the coalition. That is the policy he signed up for, and I suspect there would be a few constituents in his neck of the woods who would be interested in that.

In terms of the Tamworth turkey farmer, the advice I have from the minister is that the farmer quoted in the newspaper today had a carbon price impact of around 6.5 per cent on his electricity bill. This is in fact under that anticipated by Treasury modelling. On that farmer's electricity bill, the New South Wales government's increase in network charges accounted for around double the carbon price. So I would hope that the senator would take up his argument with the New South Wales government with double the intensity with which he is taking up the argument in this chamber given that the majority of the increase, I am advised, in fact flows from state government component increases—that is, network increase charges. That same person, depending on their income, may well be eligible for the government's tax cuts and the small business tax cuts that I referred to in response to the question from Senator Sinodinos.