Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Unless repealed, by 2020 the carbon price would have hit $38 a tonne. That was the projection in the modelling in the budget papers. On the modelling from those opposite, the negative impact of the carbon tax would have been an increase in inflation of 0.7 per cent in this year, reducing gross national income by 0.8 per cent, and after 10 years the level of real wages would be 1.1 per cent lower across the country. The carbon tax is a cost that is not imposed on overseas business competitors; it is a reverse tariff. We have seen just how much it is affecting businesses. Qantas's annual report showed the carbon tax drove up operating expenses by $106 million. It has inflated the cost of a car by $400 per car. It is not just big corporations. The tax is also affecting mum-and-dad businesses, who face higher costs—for example, increases in electricity prices and transport costs, which they have to absorb; they cannot pass them on.