George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are here to speak on the government's failure to responsibly manage the economy, and we have heard from Admiral Bradbury that everything is shipshape—the economy is well anchored. But it is very difficult for me to know where to start to criticise the government on this front. How do you choose from the vast array of economic vandalism that this government has listed on its resume? It would be a laughable proposition if only it were not so serious.

The government's economic failure is extremely serious for those on the receiving end—for this country's forgotten families: the hardworking mums and dads out there who had to sit back and watch this government dive into the pool of money earned by the good people of this country and responsibly banked by the previous government. The families in my electorate of Dawson had to sit back and watch them splash it around, spilling billions of dollars here and billions of dollars there. They are a Labor government, so they are not so concerned about a bit of spillage or a bit of waste, because waste is their middle name. When the pool of money ran out, they borrowed more, and then they borrowed more, and then they borrowed even more money. They splash, they spill, they waste. They just keep borrowing and they just keep wasting. It is painful to watch for the families that have worked hard for that money and even more painful for the families who will spend the rest of their working lives without seeing an end to Labor's debt, if this lot stay in.

This economic mismanagement continues to destroy the economy. They are a bit like a kid in the lolly store—spoilt for choice—but I will choose just three things to focus on. They are big things that the government are responsible for. They have continued and will continue to waste money. They have cost and will cost families money. They have cost and will cost businesses money. They have cost and will cost jobs.

There can be no greater example of a government determined to destroy its own economy than the Labor-Greens government, who are imposing the biggest, the ugliest and the most destructive carbon tax in the world. The problem with this government is their complete isolation from the people they are supposed to represent. The Prime Minister and the Labor members in this place sought and got a mandate from the people not to impose a carbon tax. They did not listen then and they are certainly not listening now. They are not listening to businesspeople, who quite justifiably have very serious concerns about the impact that this carbon tax will have on their livelihood. This Labor government denies the legitimate anxiety that these businesses have, knowing this tax is about to come in and hit them very, very hard. This is what business and industry are saying out in the real world. The National Generators Forum, the peak body of Australia's power industry, said the carbon tax will:

… produce virtually no change in emissions from the generation sector while imposing huge costs on the community, trade-exposed industries and electricity generators.

After looking at the legislation that this government introduced and passed, the National Generators Forum said it would almost double the wholesale price of electricity to $100 per megawatt hour by 2020. The Labor government either does not listen or does not care—probably both—about what this will do to businesses and the families that are employed by them.

Businesses in my electorate of Dawson have already made decisions to halt investment. Take, for example, Werner Engineering, a business that has been around for three decades in the Mackay region servicing the agricultural and resource sectors. I spoke to their manager, Chris Geach, about his planned multimillion dollar relocation and expansion. They have had to put it on hold. The increased cost that his local, Australian based business will have to pay under the carbon tax will not be paid by his international competitors. You cannot blame business for being against this carbon tax. But it is not just business; it is the families and workers employed, or soon to be not employed, by businesses who hate it as well. It is no wonder that more than 94 per cent of people who returned a survey that I put out in my electorate say they are opposed to the carbon tax.

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