Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

With the introduction of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (Abolition) Bill 2013 and the carbon tax repeal bills, the parliament is being given the opportunity to remove a job-destroying, economy-stalling and environmentally damaging tax. And yes, I will accept what Senator Whish-Wilson said: we are introducing this package of bills to honour an election promise. I have never heard a government being condemned, other than by the Greens, for coming into the parliament and saying, 'We are seeking to honour an election promise'. That is what we are doing, pure and simple. We accept that; we acknowledge that. We will wear it with a badge of honour. And, as Senator Whish-Wilson leaves the chamber, I simply remind him that opinion poll after opinion poll tells us that more Australians oppose the carbon tax than voted for the coalition at the last election. So it is not only coalition voters who do not like that carbon tax; there are Green voters and there are Labor voters and other voters as well. This is a tax that is abhorred by the Australian people, and quite rightly so.

These bills give the ALP the opportunity to purge itself of the deception it perpetrated on the Australian people in 2010. By voting for these bills, honourable senators will have the opportunity to play a positive role in helping to restore the economy, grow jobs, reduce the cost of living, help the environment and restore the Australian people's faith in their democratic and parliamentary system. Rarely has one bill delivered so many opportunities for the people of Australia.

In submitting ourselves to the Australian people in 2010, we said there would be no carbon tax. The ALP did exactly the same. Indeed, so adamant were our opponents that they accused us of being hysterical when we suggested Labor could not be trusted. The Australian people now know that the coalition was not being hysterical; rather we were being historical. We have seen Labor pull these stunts in the past.

I put to those opposite this very simple proposition: if a carbon tax is or was such a good idea—was good for jobs, good for the economy and good for the environment—why did the ALP so emphatically deny that they would introduce a carbon tax in the 2010 election campaign? Surely, if it was so good, they had a duty to embrace it and advocate for it and be proud of the proposition. So proud of the proposition were they that when they came into this place with the carbon tax, in cahoots with the Australian Greens, they guillotined the legislation through this place because they were so embarrassed to continue debating the issues.

And having so solemnly promised not to introduce a carbon tax the ALP of course did the exact opposite, thereby betraying the Australian people.

Some in the ALP claim they did not really want to introduce a carbon tax, but the Greens made them do it. Remember that kindergarten excuse: it was never your fault, it was always somebody else's fault; they made you do it? A lamer excuse is hard to imagine. But, seriously, would the Greens, under the leadership of former senator Bob Brown, have really said: 'No carbon tax under Labor will lead the Greens to supporting Mr Abbott, as Prime Minister, who emphatically promised no carbon tax'? I think not. The excuse is disingenuous and dishonest.

But I am willing for the purposes of this debate to take this lame ALP excuse at face value and remind those opposite that the Australian people freed them from that deal with the Greens on 7 September 2013, through the ballot box. Are those Labor senators now still saying the Greens are making them do it, even from opposition?

When a political party gets it wrong, it should admit the fact. Political parties have the same frailty as humanity: we get it wrong. That is, unless you are Bob Brown and the Australian Greens. The coalition got it wrong with Work Choices. We said it, we acknowledged it and, what is more, we showed our sincerity when dealing with it and its repeal in this and the other place. Being able to admit errors is a sign of maturity, a sign of integrity and a sign of respect to the Australian people. It is the right thing to do.

Today the ALP are being given the opportunity to right their wrong by voting down this toxic tax before Christmas and to admit they got it wrong. It is the best Christmas present this Senate could deliver the Australian people—and, if I might say, the ALP to themselves—and would get this monkey off their own back.

Mr Shorten and the ALP can be either Santa's helper or the Grinch. It is up to them. The 2013 election was a referendum on a number of issues, as Senator Whish-Wilson indicated. But, very clearly, if it was one thing, it was a referendum on the carbon tax—a tax so destructive, so unpopular, so despised that the ALP pretended to abolish it. Indeed, during the election campaign, Mr Rudd, the former Prime Minister, said:

… the Government has got a number of things wrong …

For example, I don't think our actions on the carbon tax were right.

And further:

To begin with we didn't have a mandate for it.

There he was, trying to say that they did not have a mandate and that they got it wrong. They even put out brochures saying that they had removed the carbon tax. Now that the election is over, they are reverting to their old ways and voting to keep the carbon tax, which they promised they would not have, which they then promised to repeal and which now they are not going to repeal. Indeed, another frontbencher from the Labor Party, Mr Marles, said:

Labor must "acknowledge the fact that Tony Abbott won the election and we lost" and the new government had a mandate to axe this tax.

The Labor Party know what is the right thing to do. Mr Rudd said it and Mr Marles said it, but they just cannot bring themselves to admit that they got it so terribly wrong—and not only wrong but did so with deception to boot.

The Labor Party even had the audacity to campaign, saying Kevin Rudd and Labor had removed the carbon tax. If they had removed the carbon tax, why do we need to spend time in this chamber debating these bills? The simple fact is that the Labor-Greens carbon tax is still in place; it was just another dishonest campaign technique by Labor in their desperate bid to win the 2013 election.

Those same ALP senators who put out those brochures are the ones who got elected in 2010 on the promise of no carbon tax. So, having been elected in 2010 on a promise of no carbon tax, they voted for one. Then at the 2013 election they go out, saying, 'We've repealed it.' Then, after the 2013 election, they come into this place to do the exact opposite. Oh what tangled webs the ALP have woven for themselves!

But let us make no mistake: the Australian people voted overwhelmingly to oust the carbon tax and they did so for good reason. So strong, so overwhelming, so unassailable were the reasons to abolish the carbon tax that the coalition promised to introduce this legislation as its first item of business. And we are here today honouring that solemn promise with these bills. We made that promise and the people voted for that promise because the tax was truly toxic. It was destructive and it was perverse.

As an aside, it is a matter of regret that the trade union leadership of our country sold out the interests of their members in pursuit of their own personal political ambitions. The workers and the minority of workers who were still members of the trade union movement clearly ignored the trade union leadership and voted for their jobs and voted to reduce their cost of living by voting for the coalition, many for the very first time in their lives.

The carbon tax is destructive of jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector. Every Australian-made motor vehicle carries a reverse tariff of $400, courtesy of Labor's carbon tax. Each Australian-made vehicle starts $400 behind each and every imported motor vehicle into our country. Yet where was the AMWU's leadership? Either missing in action or actively supporting the carbon tax because they were looking after their personal parliamentary prospects, whilst selling out their members.

Senator Kim Carr, who presided over the shedding of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, actively voted and cheered this toxic, job-destroying tax through the Senate. And what did the then general manager of Holden have to say about the carbon tax? In June, Holden's general manager, Mike Devereaux, said:

There is no question that a tax on electricity, in making it more expensive in input costs, makes it more difficult for me to make money building cars.

He said that repealing the carbon tax will reduce the cost of an Australian-made motor vehicle by $400.

But it was not just the auto sector; food manufacturing was similarly hit, making the industry's already very tough circumstances so much worse. Our abattoirs, which are so vital for the viability of our agricultural and pastoral sectors, were hit and hit hard. Even the home-building sector was slugged. The Housing Industry Association says that the carbon tax has an impost on every new dwelling of $5,000. And yet the previous government said they were trying to fight to reduce the cost of housing. They even had a housing minister. What use is a housing minister when that housing minister has no impact on policy which increases the cost of housing by $5,000 per unit, helping to put home affordability out of the reach of so many of our fellow Australians?

Being the far-flung country that we are, we rely heavily on the transport sector. It is about to be slugged with a Greens-ALP carbon tax, yet the Transport Workers Union leadership fails to connect this extra impost into the overall cost pressures that the road transport sector is currently battling.

We have heard from the tourism sector and the airlines what the carbon tax is doing: making their precarious sector so much more precarious. If a person flies from Perth to Tasmania for a holiday, there will be carbon tax payable. If that same person decides to holiday not somewhere in Australia but in Fiji or Bali, there is no carbon tax payable. How does that help the Australian tourism industry? But these are the measures that the Greens-Labor alliance guillotined so shamefully through the Senate without a mandate.

We all know, from going around the Australian electorate during the last election campaign—if we needed reminding—that Australian households are grappling with the cost of living. Household budgets are tight. Balancing them is exceptionally difficult. I heard the dismissive remarks made earlier in the debate by the Greens senator about the cost of living. You can be dismissive of cost-of-living pressures when you are on a senatorial salary; you cannot be so dismissive of cost-of-living pressures when you live in the outer suburbs of Hobart and work at the Cadbury factory, the zinc works or some of these other places. People are hurting out there. We recognised it. There is no doubt that the repeal of these carbon tax bills will, in effect, give a $10 per week after-tax pay increase to the average household—a modest but nevertheless genuine fillip in these tough times.

So, be it jobs in manufacturing, transport, tourism or housing—indeed, in every sector—or household budgeting, this tax is destructive of jobs, saps confidence from a low-growth economy and reduces people's disposable income. All this reckless damage ostensibly is being done in the name of fixing the environment. It is here that the cruel nature of the carbon tax hoax is fully exposed. Rather than helping the environment, it, perversely, makes things worse. The example of Coogee Chemicals is a classic: a $1 billion capital venture with a promise of 150 ongoing jobs and providing export earnings and import replacement by the billions—all this was available to our country but did not proceed in Australia. The venture did proceed, but not in Australia. Where did it proceed? In China. Why did they do that? Because they could not make ends meet under the carbon tax regime. But what is so cruel about this from the environmental point of view is that their carbon footprint in China will be twice what it would have been in a pre-carbon-tax Australia. That is why we say on this side that not only is it economically destructive and destructive of jobs; it is also destructive of the environment.

Indeed, the European experience shows us that. With their emissions-trading scheme, they saw a lot of manufacturing desert Europe. Where did it go? To Africa. Is there anybody in Australia who actually believes that the environmental safeguards in Africa are better than in Europe? Does anybody actually believe that the Europeans stopped using aluminium and manufactured products? Of course not. They still wanted them; they still demanded them; they still required them. So we then had the added impost to the environment of the fossil fuels used to bring all these goods back into Europe, once again damaging the environment.

These carbon tax bills have mugged our economy, both domestically and through its export efforts. They have also mugged people's faith in our democratic system. Our economy has seen a dramatic decline in growth, and Labor's last budget told us that. Labor budgeted for higher unemployment and lower growth—higher unemployment with all its socially corrosive consequences. Around the world, country after country are abandoning or scaling down their now discredited and corrupt carbon regimes. In the face of this overwhelming evidence, the Greens-ALP alliance will simply continue their mantra dating back from before the world conference at Copenhagen.

I quickly turn in the time left to the solution that the coalition has put forward. It is very simply this: you do not have to mug your economy. You do not have to destroy jobs to look after the environment. That is why our Direct Action Plan will deliver our five per cent carbon dioxide reduction target, beautify our landscapes and vistas with more trees, provide more fertile soils and make our energy generation more efficient. And all this, I stress again, without mugging our economy, destroying jobs or breaking household budgets.

The coalition rejects the extreme Green-ALP proposition that to be environmentally responsible you somehow need to be economically irresponsible. Somewhere in this debate we will no doubt hear what a great fillip the carbon tax is for our economy—and Senator Whish-Wilson went down that track. Well, if it is that good, why wouldn't you double or treble it? And we would get double or treble the benefits! I think we know why it is not being doubled or trebled; it is because it is so toxic that, if it were doubled or trebled, it would not just slowly poison our economy, it would finish it off once and for good.

We all know the carbon tax simply is not an economic boost; it is an unnecessary handbrake that damages the environment. Having betrayed their electorates in the 43rd Parliament, will those opposite now compound that betrayal by blocking this measure in the 44th Parliament? The coalition will seek to do everything it can to obtain the passage of these bills.