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

I welcome the opportunity to speak tonight on the need for the Senate to repeal the carbon tax as a matter of urgency.    Labor's carbon tax has caused $15.4 billion of damage to the Australian economy in its first two years of operation.

The Clean Energy Regulator last week showed the carbon tax hit Victorians with $1.5 billion in additional costs in 2013-14. This ill-conceived and ineffective tax has had a damaging effect on increasing costs to households and business. But tonight I want to focus on regional areas, regional industries and regional families that have been disproportionally affected by a policy dreamt up in the city by politicians—areas such as Stawell, Ararat, Benalla and Heathcote, struggling with the cost of living.

Businesses key to food production and food processing have been struggling under the weight of the carbon tax. For the country's largest dairy food company, Murray Goulburn, the carbon tax has resulted in an annual cost of $14 million in just its first year. National irrigators have suffered an extra $449,000 because of this tax. Refrigerated transport, also key to getting our produce to market, is similarly affected.

However, it is not only business that has borne the cost of this toxic tax. Victorian public health, which would be supposedly exempt from the carbon tax, has paid approximately $13.5 million, which could have allowed an additional 2,700 patients each year to potentially receive elective surgery across the state.

In regional areas, no commodity is more essential to our wealth generation than water; and for communities in northern Victoria the uncertainty of recent droughts, floods, the Murray-Darling Basin plan debate, the increased cost of doing business on dairy farms, and permanent plantings for the longstanding horticulture industry have all been severely impacted by the carbon tax. Irrigators have no opportunity to pass these costs on. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan negotiated through state and federal governments has been a breakthrough in how to manage water. It means that Australia leads the world in how to manage water resources most effectively. To quote the New South Wales Irrigators Council:

Australian irrigators have - with government insistence - moved to efficient irrigation techniques that require significant energy inputs.

We're now being slugged with hundreds of thousands of dollars in carbon tax as a result with no way out of it.

From our research, the impact of the carbon tax is crystal clear; it adds significant costs to irrigators across the state who have no opportunity to pass these costs on.

We support the government in its effort to abolish the carbon tax.

I know that irrigators right across northern Victoria feel the same. That is the result of the strong advocacy of National Party candidates: Scott Turner in Ripon; Steph Ryan in Euroa; and Greg Barr in Shepparton.

A strong irrigation industry leads to a strong dairy industry, and Victoria's dairy sector accounts for 65.6 per cent of Australia's milk production. Our dairy sector also exports from Victoria 86 per cent of our nation's dairy export, valued at $1.85 billion.

According to Dairy Australia, the indicative carbon price rate on some dairy farm bills in Victoria is 0.022c per kilowatt per hour. That is based on a sample of 10 Victorian dairy farms and suggests that our dairy farms are paying more than $1,600 a year if the carbon price is being passed on in full. This is in addition to the price that many of those dairy farmers are paying for their irrigation. The carbon price is also directly costing milk companies, such as Devondale Murray Goulburn, incurring an annual carbon price cost of approximately $14 million, as I mentioned earlier. Tatura Milk, in northern Victoria, has incurred a direct cost $660,000, plus electricity and gas as a result of the carbon tax. Noel Campbell, Chair of ADIC, said the following:

The dairy industry is committed to reducing carbon emissions; however the carbon tax has added to the cost of production for dairy farmers and processes, and makes our costs out of line with our key international competitors.

While we respect differing views, there can be no doubt the Coalition sought and received a mandate from the Australian people to remove the Carbon Tax.

We have significant potential to grow as an industry and create jobs in food production and manufacturing, however to take advantage of international demand, we need the dead weight of the carbon tax lifted off us.

Dairying is a key industry in the seats that I mentioned, where the Nationals are running strong candidates for the state election. They are committed to getting rid of the carbon tax and have been strong advocates to me on the issues surrounding the carbon tax and getting rid of it. It is important for their local industries and the cost affects small manufacturers and small businesses. Indeed, there are the cost-of-living issues for local families.

It is not just the dairy industry that struggles against these high electricity prices. In an area like Shepparton in northern Victoria, electricity prices have had a significant effect on other farmers, such as orchardists, who are battling against the high price of running their cool rooms, Greg Barr is determined to address these concerns and knows that freezing the carbon tax is an essential step. In fact, removing this carbon tax could see an extra $1,000 for Fishers IGA in Stawell, according to Scott Turner, or $550-odd for refrigerated transport in a medium sized truck from Seymour to Benalla for produce from those two areas to head to the Melbourne markets.

Cheap electricity was once a great strength of the Victorian economy which gave us the competitive advantage that saw us develop a very strong manufacturing sector that prospered. Unfortunately, Labor's carbon tax has hit the Victorian economy particularly hard, as evidenced by our declining manufacturing base. Our candidate in Euroa, Steph Ryan, is a strong advocate for regenerating industry, particularly in the regions. I know that the repeal of the carbon tax is something she has been very vocal about. She knows that decreasing the cost of doing business in towns like Seymour is essential if those communities are to reach their economic potential.

On this side of the chamber, we look forward to ensuring that regional Australians can reach their potential and live their lives to the full. This includes ensuring the best health outcomes for all Australian. The Labor Party can stand here and claim that they do too and the carbon tax does not apply to healthcare providers, but in reality even the health industry succumbed to the symptoms of this toxic tax. There have been increases in hospital supply chains, nitrous oxide supply, capital works, food and, importantly, energy bills. In 2012-13 the carbon tax was between nine and 23 per cent of the total energy spent for individual health services in Victoria. Just to touch on a few: Goulburn Valley Health, 17 per cent; Echuca Regional Health, 15 per cent; Albury Wodonga Health in the seat of Indi, 12 per cent—and I note that particular local member voted to keep the carbon tax; and Ballarat Health Services, 15 per cent. Scott Turner, our candidate for Ripon has raised the issue of the cost for Maryborough District Health Service at 14 per cent. Total energy expenditure by Victorian health services was over $96 million in 2012-13, an increase of almost 28 per cent. The Department of Health has claimed that the abolition of the carbon tax would allow for an additional 2,700 patients each year. Bendigo Health Care Group, paid approximately half a million dollars in carbon tax. They said:

For a health service the size of Bendigo Health this expenditure, if available, could be used in a variety of ways to provide additional services that could not be provided while the carbon tax is in place.

The carbon tax has been crushing for our health sector and the Labor party would have us believe that this tax does not affect the health sector. We need to act now to prevent the consequences of this damaging tax.

Labor and the Greens claim to support regional Australia and the agriculture industry and yet they are increasing our cost of living every day this tax stays in place, stifling job creation and impacting our industries and communities right across regional Australia, and specifically in my home state, particularly because of the energy-intensive industries in our regions. Now is the time to prove their support for regional Australia and Victorians, because we want the carbon tax gone.

The Nationals candidates, Greg Barr in Shepparton, Scott Turner in Ripon and Steph Ryan in Euroa believe that removing the carbon tax will lead to job creation, lowering the cost of living for families and small businesses, assisting our farmers and reducing electricity prices. The election result could not have been clearer: the people of Australia, and particularly people in regional Australia, want the carbon tax gone. This is not about whether climate change is real or imagined. We must act. But we can address climate change without destroying business, agriculture and our local communities. The Nationals, as part of a strong coalition, are determined to see the end to this impost. At the state and federal level, we are doing everything we can to let people in this place know how it affects our communities. It is time for Labor and the Greens to stop denying the coalition government's mandate to repeal the carbon tax and deliver much needed financial relief for our regional communities.

Senate adjourned at 22:28