Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ronaldson for that question. Labor's latest thought bubble—coming up with a proposal to increase our emissions reduction target to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030—if implemented, would damage the economy and cost jobs. Labor know this, because they actually conducted modelling while in government which shows exactly that.

It would take about $600 billion out of the economy in just 15 years. So Labor's plan, so to speak, would shrink the economy by $600 billion over the next 15 years. I am not [inaudible]. When we came into government, we had a carbon tax which was heading towards $30 a tonne and rising beyond. Under Bill Shorten, we have the $209 CST—the Bill Shorten carbon supertax. This is a great big new tax on everything that Labor want to bring back. Never mind $30 a tonne; a $209 CST. A $209 carbon supertax is what Australians would get under Labor.

What it would do is cut people's wages by about $4,900 a year by 2030. It would push up the cost of electricity by about 78 per cent by 2030. And, of course, this is not everything. What it would actually do, like the Labor Green carbon tax of old—the one when it was just heading to $30 a tonne—is shift jobs and emissions overseas. It would actually not help to reduce emissions in the world. It might reduce emissions in Australia, because Labor would be shrinking the economy, but it would just shift those emissions and those jobs to other parts of the world where there would be higher emissions for the same amount of economic output.