Senate debates
Monday, 26 November 2012
Bills
Clean Energy Amendment (International Emissions Trading and Other Measures) Bill 2012, Clean Energy (Charges — Excise) Amendment Bill 2012, Clean Energy (Charges — Customs) Amendment Bill 2012, Excise Tariff Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Auctions) Amendment Bill 2012; Second Reading
6:11 pm
Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source
will get up and say: 'No, all those prices that Senator Macdonald quoted from the carbon market in the last few days are wrong. Senator Macdonald has read those incorrectly. We don't have to worry about $15 or $23 or $29 a tonne, which we've got to have to balance our books. Those prices he read out of $8, $9, $10, $11 are all wrong.' I am just waiting for someone from the Labor Party to get up and say, 'Senator Macdonald got that wrong about the New Zealanders.' As one of the Labor Party members said in a very significant interview a few weeks ago: 'The Australian government has adopted a similar carbon tax proposal as the New Zealand parliament—exactly the same.' Yeah, yeah! Only the Australian price is $23 a tonne, the New Zealand price is $2.11 per tonne. Yeah, the same price! What a joke. This would be a laughing matter if it were not so serious for the Australian economy.
Quite frankly, I say with some regret that I think Labor Party politicians are in permanent denial mode. I know most of them are not game to go out and face their constituents at the moment. I know most of the Queensland Labor MPs in the lower house—the few that there are—avoid public meetings like the plague. Why? Because every one of their constituents is suffering as their costs of living skyrocket. Why? Because of the carbon tax. You can have all sorts of other excuses and explanations, but can I just say to the Labor Party senators here: don't bother wasting your voice even trying to explain it. People in Queensland know that they have been done over, that their costs of living have risen because of the price of carbon. They also know that the carbon tax and the mining tax are causing real uncertainty. I challenge any Queensland Labor senator to go and spend a few days in Gladstone, talk to people there and you will find in that magnificently active and aggressive industrial city of Gladstone that people are worried. They are worried about their jobs. They are worried about their futures. They are worried about their mortgages.
Debate interrupted.
Sitting suspended from 18:30 to 19:30
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