Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

We know that the Labor Party plans to force the closure of coal-fired power stations at a time when we can least afford it. I also remind the Senate of the last time Labor brought in a carbon tax. That tax represented a $15 billion cost to Australia's economy, and we in the coalition believe there is a better and more pragmatic approach. Labor's carbon tax made farmers less competitive internationally, it made our regional industries less competitive internationally, and it risked the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of regional Australian working families who rely on affordable energy to power their industries and to provide their jobs. Regional households, businesses and farms are under unprecedented cost pressures and now is not the time to be either conducting big experiments like the Labor Party's Jay Weatherill is doing in South Australia or bringing back crude taxes that will hurt regional people without helping the environment.