Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked today.

This week is a very sad week for our nation. It is a nation that went to an election and was given a warrant by the highest elected office holder in the land at that time that there would be no carbon tax under the government she led. Now we are apparently going to go down that path. Unfortunately, we will have no government under the carbon tax she leads. It is sad that at this point in time, with all the precarious things that are happening on the global economic front, we would be foolish enough to go down this path, ignoring the fallout that is happening in Europe as we speak.

We are on the edge of a precipice. This government is just completely and utterly self-indulgent. It also shows the power in our nation that the Australian Greens have now. The Labor Party is obviously tied in the most intricate form in its policy structure to what was in the past a peripheral party. The Greens' desire for Australia is one in which there is no coalmining. The Greens do not believe in a coalmining industry for Australia, they do not believe in live cattle exports, they do not believe in the irrigation industry of the Murray-Darling Basin—they do not believe in so much of what is fundamentally important to keeping our nation strong.

They say all these mystical things. They talk about compensation. You only need compensation if you have been hurt. No one ever pays compensation to somebody who has not been afflicted. That in itself is an admission of the sorts of problems we are going to have. They talk about the compensation package for the steel industry. Quite obviously they recognise that the steel industry will get smashed. They talk about the compensation package for pensioners, and of course that is a recognition that the pensioners are going to get smashed. They talk about giving people back some of their own money, and they expect people to say thank you for it. It is just an absurd kafkaesque policy.

The whole point of a carbon tax is a pricing mechanism to make things dearer. That is how it works. If that does not happen, there is no point to it. If it does work, then it is totally dangerous and we should not be doing it. Power is not currently free. There is a very high price for power. Many people struggle with the price of power as it is and they do not need any more incentive not to use power. We are seeing in the United States the highest levels of poverty since 1964, and we see similar things in Europe. We should be doing everything we can in our nation to draw the wagons into a circle, to make our nation strong.

It is absurd that we are going down this path right now. When I last checked our debt was $211,392 billion. We borrowed in excess of $2 billion just last week. Jeffrey Sachs says that $3 billion would be the annual cost of curing malaria in Africa. We borrowed that in 1½ weeks. We have to pay this money back. If we do not pay this money back, our nation will be in so much strife and so much trouble. How do we pay the money back? We put ourselves in a strong position. We accentuate the areas where we are strong. We are strong in the export of minerals and in the production of agriculture. What on earth are we doing putting a tax on these things? One of the greatest fundamentals we ever delivered to this nation was a fair standard of living. This is a direct attack on our Australian standard of living.

The question at the essence of this tax that those opposite never answer is how much will this tax that they are about to impose on Australia cool the temperature of the globe? The answer is that it will do absolutely nothing to the temperature of the globe. It is merely a gesture. We are inflicting the privations of poverty on people who cannot afford it, all for a gesture. And this has come from the Labor Party. They used to represent the people who are doing it tough, but now they are not—they have been hijacked by a very particular group in Australia, the Australian Greens, and this will destroy our nation and it will destroy the Australian Labor Party.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Joyce started off by saying what a sad week it was, but what is really sad about this week is that those on the other side are still naysayers and sceptics. Everybody on this side knows that introducing a price on carbon is the right thing to do for the economy and that cutting carbon pollution will help to drive investment in clean energy technologies and the infrastructure associated with that in areas such as solar, gas and wind. It will help build the clean energy future that future generations deserve. I have great concern about what we are leaving future generations. When there is a chance for us to make something better and try to repair some of the damage that has been done, it is incumbent upon the government to take action to do that—not to just, like those on the other side, misrepresent, misconstrue and misreport anything that comes across the desk in regard to clean energy and carbon pricing.

Most of question time was taken up with this issue today and I am sure that will continue to occur for the rest of the week. A number of mistruths or misconceptions were put forward in question time. I did hear one big misconception put forward—although, due to the number of interjections by those on the other side, it gets a bit hard to hear sometimes.

Senator Boyce interjecting—

I rest my case. We sit here patiently and listen to all they have to say but their manners are astounding—they have to interject. They cannot help themselves. Obviously they like the sound of their own voices. Areas like China, Japan, the US and India are moving in a similar direction, yet those opposite are saying that other countries are doing nothing. I have heard them say that on many occasions, and it is simply not true. As I have said, it is important that we do this for future generations—for our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. Delaying this action will cause enormous problems. We are well aware that those on the other side like to oppose for opposing's sake. They consistently and persistently do it, as we heard all through question time and as we hear out there when they have their mates running ads to try to stop carbon pricing going through. They run the scare campaigns but I think people are seeing through them. I consider it an absolute abuse of power by those on the other side. I think they need to come clean about what is happening.

Mr Deputy President, this will probably be of great interest to you. I have some statistics about how carbon price household assistance will help Tasmania, which is the home state of both you and me. In case you were not aware, Mr Deputy President, more than 102,300 pensioners in Tasmania will receive in their pension payments an extra $338 extra per year if they are single and up to $510 per year if they are a couple. This is very important to pensioners within Tasmania and, in fact, throughout the nation. More than 45,600 families in Tasmania will receive household assistance through their family assistance payments.

Yes, we are compensating people for the fact that there needs to be a carbon price, but those on the other side have the audacity to say that we should not have to compensate people unless they are damaged. I do not think taking $1,300 off every person is any better. In fact, the direct, no-action policy that those on the other side and Mr Abbott adhere to has big problems. On the Gillard government side, we are working hard to make sure that more than 5,300 self-funded retirees in Tasmania will receive an extra $338 a year in assistance for singles and up to $510 per year for couples combined.

Mr Deputy President, I know you will be interested in this because you are quite concerned with people in jobs: more than 18,900 jobseekers in Tasmania will also get up to $218 extra per year for singles and $390 per year— (Time expired)

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The carbon tax is a bad tax based on a lie. The original deception of the Australian people was in the lead up to the last election, when the Prime Minister promised that there would be no carbon tax under a government she leads. Even now, the Labor-Green alliance continues to deceive the Australian people. The reason it wants to rush this legislation through the parliament this week is because it knows that every day that goes by with more parliamentary scrutiny, more flaws and more deceptions will be exposed.

The Labor-Green alliance wants people to believe that the carbon tax and the emissions trading scheme which is to follow will reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, but the carbon tax will do nothing of the sort. It will not even reduce emissions here in Australia. In the past, when we debated the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation proposed by the former Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, I was concerned that the proposal was to reduce emissions in Australia in a way that would just shift them overseas into areas where emissions would be higher than they would be in Australia. To a degree that is still true under this bad carbon tax because, while emissions under the carbon tax will be somewhat lower in Australia than they otherwise would be, under the government's carbon pricing package emissions in Australia will continue to grow.

Do not take my word for it. When I asked Senator Wong today during question time to explain and confirm that she was not prepared to do so, but this information comes directly out of the Treasury's own modelling; it is there in black and white. Emissions now are 578 million tonnes. According to the Treasury modelling, under the carbon tax and the emissions trading scheme, emissions in 2020 will be 621 million tonnes. So emissions will go up. The government argues, 'Yes, but emissions will be lower than they otherwise would have been, so it is fair for us to claim that somehow emissions will go down.' Okay, if your argument is that something is falling even though it is going up, on the basis that it will be lower than it otherwise would have been, what about jobs? What about real wages? What about the economy? The Treasury modelling shows that, under the carbon tax and the emissions trading scheme, Australia's GDP will be 2.8 per cent lower by 2050 than it otherwise would have been. Using the government's rhetoric and spin in relation to emissions, that means that the economy is actually going to shrink. Economic growth is going to fall. This is the government's language. The Treasury modelling indicates that under the carbon tax real wages will be more than five per cent lower by 2050 than it otherwise would be. So real wages are falling. If you use the government's argument that emissions in Australia are falling even though they are going from 578 million tonnes to 621 million tonnes, because they will be lower than it otherwise would have been, then that means that real wages will fall, because they will be lower than they otherwise would have been.

The point here is that the carbon tax—a tax that the people of Australia do not want and which the government is pursuing and ramming through the parliament in defiance of the Australian people—will push up the cost of everything, will reduce our international competitiveness, will cost jobs and will result in lower wages. It will do all of that while emissions will continue to grow.

One final observation in relation to some of the comments by Senator Carr on local content is that if the Prime Minister were serious about achieving more local content she would scrap her carbon tax, which will make locally manufactured goods more expensive. Under the carbon tax we are in a ludicrous situation where higher-emitting manufacturers overseas will become more competitive than lower-emitting businesses in Australia. As higher-emitting businesses overseas take market share away from us emissions internationally will go up, not down. This whole carbon tax is a joke. It is a bad tax based on a lie. The Labor Party knows it, which is why it wants to ram it through the parliament.

Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start by acknowledging and thanking Senator Wong for the information, the education and the conviction that she gave in her answers in question time today on issues relating to our clean energy bills and in relation to climate change. However, what we know on this side of the chamber is that the opposition continues to oppose everything in relation to clean energy and climate change despite the science, despite the activity in our global economy and despite what is happening in other countries introducing their own emissions trading schemes. Instead, the opposition would prefer to continue to run scare campaigns that will do nothing to move Australia's economy into a transformed, clean energy economy, will do nothing for prosperity and will do nothing to ensure that we are playing our part in the global arena, both environmentally and economically, in relation to climate change—something that, as I said, the science is clear on and something that needs our action.

We believe in moving Australia forward into a clean energy economy. We believe in that important transformation that needs to take place. That is why, like the rest of the globe, Australia will have a price on clean energy goods and services, to ensure that we have a competitive economy with the rest of the globe in relation to clean energy. That relates very much to manufacturing, as Senator Cormann touched on, in his most negative fashion, just previously. That is because manufacturing is an important component in our transformation to a clean energy economy. That is why the Clean Energy Future package includes extensive support for Australia's manufacturing industry—a $9.2 billion Jobs and Competitiveness Program which will shield heavy industry sectors like steelmaking, aluminium production and glass and paper manufacturing from the carbon price and support jobs in Australia. On top of that, it will provide an additional $300 million for steel transformation, with a Steel Transformation Plan to provide extra assistance for steelmakers in this transformation to a clean energy future.

This is an incredibly important week. We have not had our chance yet in this place to debate the clean energy bills, but this week in the House of Representatives they will be doing just that. They will be voting this week on the government's Clean Energy Future legislation, which will let us get on with the job of tackling climate change, playing our role as a nation by putting a price on carbon so that we can ensure that we can play a competitive role, along with other nations, including the European Union, with an emissions trading scheme. The legislation that we will get to debate in here puts the price tag on only around 500 of our biggest polluters, and every cent of the revenue raised will be used to assist households, to support jobs and competitiveness and to invest in clean energy and climate change programs.

These are good things that are coming out of putting a price on carbon, something that the opposition continue to simply ignore. They do not want to know about the good things that come about from these clean energy bills. They do not want to admit and accept that what we have here in this significant reform for this nation will in fact be good for people, good for the environment, good for the climate and good for our Australian economy as we play the role that we need to in a globally competitive environment.

Some of those good things include assisting households with tax cuts and raising the tax-free threshold to $18½ thousand—something that will benefit thousands upon thousands of low-income Australians. That is a really good thing that is coming out of these clean energy bills. On top of that, we are increasing family payments and raising pensions and allowances—another good thing that the Gillard Labor government are doing for people in these bills. Not only is this package good for people and for the economy but it is also— (Time expired)

Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am indebted to the Queensland Resources Council for pointing out that tomorrow is Pudding Day. It is the 93rd anniversary of the publication of The Magic Pudding, Norman Lindsay's book—which I think everyone here will know—about a pudding that could be eaten over and over again and magically resume its wholeness. The magic pudding, of course, has come to be emblematic of situations where various vested interests have sought to take a piece out of a growth sector of the economy and believed that the sector would suffer no harm and simply renew and reform itself. How very appropriate, the Queensland Resources Council points out, that the vote on the Gillard government's carbon tax legislation is going to be on Pudding Day.

The so-called Clean Energy Future set of bills is a classic case of magic pudding public policy. The government seem to think that we can go it alone. Despite the protestations of the government there are very small sections in Europe, China and some states of America where carbon tax policies or emissions trading schemes have been introduced, and there is nothing with the sort of cost that is going to be imposed on Australia. There will be no magic pudding when we are talking about the world's biggest carbon tax, a tax that is based on a lie perpetrated by the Prime Minister during the election campaign in 2010.

The great magic pudding will in fact turn out to be a little piece of blancmange on the toes of the Gillard government. The analysis of federal Treasury modelling shows that the carbon pricing scheme will reduce national income by $1 trillion by 2050 and there will be a fall of 0.1 per cent every year from the introduction of the tax until 2050. When this is compounded, we are talking about a 2.8 per cent reduction in GDP. Minister Wong liked to claim that the opposition was running a scare campaign about jobs on the carbon tax. I am sorry, but the opposition has some very, very good company. This is not a scare campaign; this is the truth that the government fail to recognise. Probably they would include Mr Dick Warburton from Manufacturing Australia as one of the scare campaigners. The Rudd government did not think that when it appointed him to run an advisory group on emissions-intensive trade-exposed industries. It did not think that when he was a director of the Reserve Bank. Both positions put him in a position to have a very good view of what will happen when this tax is introduced. He is not a scare campaigner; he is a genuine, committed Australian who wants to act in the national interest.

Let us look also at the National Generators Forum, which makes the remarkable comment—remarkable to this government, anyway—that it will pass on increased costs to consumers. What a bizarre idea. That should not happen, according to the government. The National Generators Forum says that the carbon tax will cost $40 billion extra in the generation of power to the end of 2019-20. The government can compensate all it likes, but there will not be enough.

There is a better way: it is to accept the coalition's direct action plan and support for renewable energy growth. It is to pass the amendments, which will be put to the House of Representatives this evening, to delay any proclamation of this bill until after an election. That would allow this government to find out and be brave about introducing this disastrous tax. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.