Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Will the minister update the House on the impact of the carbon tax on aviation in Australia? Is there anything that can be done to ensure the viability of Australia's aviation sector into the future?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Durack who, arguably, would travel longer by air than anyone to be here week by week. She fully understands the importance of aviation in regional communities and in linking regional Australia to the rest of the nation.

The aviation sector is vital to the national economy. It behoves us all to take note when the aviation industry has reported a loss in the first half year for the first time in more than a decade. The reality is that the carbon tax is bleeding this industry. The carbon tax is adding to its costs—costs which cannot be added on to consumers. The cost is not just the direct cost that the airlines have to pick up through their fuel bills but it is also the impact on tourism, and the fact that we have been made less competitive as a country as a result of the carbon tax.

There is the mining tax as well. It means that fewer people fly, and so the airlines have been left in a less profitable position. The CEO of Virgin nailed it, John Borghetti, when he made it absolutely clear that it was the carbon tax that was the most important thing that governments could do to make a difference to the airlines, and that it was making a substantial contribution to Virgin's drop in profitability.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They've got no impact!

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler is the man who thinks that the Qantas Sale Act is about regional services, when they are not even mentioned in the act. When he was minister for transport, he said, 'The impact of the carbon tax will be little more than the cost of a cup of coffee.' Little more than the cost of a cup of coffee! Well, for Rex in the first half year the cost was $1.3 million! For Virgin it was $27 million in the first half year, and for Qantas it was $106 million in the year. I do not know when the shadow minister last bought a cup of coffee, but it was a very, very expensive cup of coffee! If it is so insignificant, why won't Labor join us in getting rid of the carbon tax? Get rid of the carbon tax!

The member for Gorton thinks that the government owns the airline. Five times he said on Sunday television that the government was the majority shareholder. Where was he when Paul Keating and Bob Hawke sold off every share in Qantas? The opposition is so out of touch, so lacking in understanding of the aviation sector. That is the only way they could be denying what the industry wants most. There is something they can do just as well as the government: that is, to vote against the carbon tax. Get rid of the carbon tax and that will be a major stride forward for the aviation industry and its profitability in Australia.