Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Williams for the question. The truth is, whether it is a fixed price carbon tax or a floating price carbon tax or a floating price emissions trading scheme—whatever name Labor wants to give it—it will continue to push up and push up and push up the cost of electricity. If you look at the former government's own modelling, it thought it would push up the cost of electricity to the tune of—$38 a tonne of carbon was going to be the price by 2020.

They never tell people this, that they expect the price on carbon, whether it is fixed or floating, to continue to go up and up and up and to continue to increase the burden on families, to continue to increase the burden on seniors, to continue to put pressure on business, to continue to put jobs at risk. Labor should do what they said they would do before the election—that is, vote to terminate the carbon tax. Kevin Rudd and Labor said they had already done it. (Time expired)