Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If we do nothing, in a decade that will lift to $3 billion. The opportunity cost of that is extraordinary. Imagine borrowing $3 billion in 10 years from now just to pay the interest on our debt. One month's worth of interest payments would build three new teaching hospitals in Tasmania. I say to those opposite: when it comes to the MRRT and the carbon tax, for goodness sake bend to the will of the Australian people. Listen to the mandate the government was given at the last election. Let us ease cost-of-living pressures not just on the families in Australia and in Tasmania but on those companies that contribute to revenue that gives our society the services that it quite rightly demands. Do what is right and in our country's interest. I commend the bill to the House.

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