House debates

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Bills

Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, True-up Shortfall Levy (Excise) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, True-up Shortfall Levy (General) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013, Customs Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Excise Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013, Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates and Other Amendments) Bill 2013, Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Abolition) Bill 2013; Second Reading

6:40 pm

Photo of Andrew SouthcottAndrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, member for Shortland—there are government change deniers in the ranks of the Labor Party and in the ranks of the opposition. They just have not accepted the result of the September election, and they do not understand the impact that this has on jobs and the impact that this has on household budgets.

I know that amongst a lot of people there is a bit of cynicism: 'Well, prices just continue to go up, and will you really see prices come down as a result of removing the carbon tax?' The ACCC have been very clear on this. They have said that they will have the powers to ensure that cost reductions from the repeal of this carbon tax are passed on. Rod Sims said:

I think this is really quite a straightforward issue. Prices went up by nine per cent. There's not much doubt about that number. It was the number that people have had for some time. That's what happened when the price was introduced, and of course, when you take it away, you reverse that. I really it's quite straightforward.

So repealing the carbon tax will help families, it will help jobs and it will help households with those cost-of-living pressures by taking electricity down and by taking gas down. It will help the economy and it will demonstrate that Australia is open for business again.

Comments

Tibor Majlath
Posted on 9 Dec 2015 1:18 pm

DR. SOUTHCOTT:

Prices went up by nine per cent. There's not much doubt about that number. It was the number that people have had for some time. That's what happened when the price was introduced, and of course, when you take it away, you reverse that. I really (sic) it's quite straightforward.

REPLY:

In the case of the Belair Hotel mentioned above - how could off-peak power have increased 44% as a direct result of the carbon tax, if prices went up by only 9% because of it?

Tibor Majlath
Posted on 23 Dec 2015 10:28 am

It is difficult enough to understand the various percentages thrown about by politicians.

It seems that off-peak did increase by 2-2.5 cents/KWH due to the carbon tax. This increase appears to have been applied across all the other tariffs as well, leading to different percentage increases.

But why pick on off-peak? Because, in percentage terms the highest and scariest increase appears to be on off-peak power since the off-peak rate was once also the lowest.