Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let me at the outset take issue with the member for Oxley, who talked about compensation for the carbon tax. Why start talking about compensation if the carbon tax is such a good thing? The carbon tax is not going to do one thing for the environment. It is not going to decrease sea levels. It is not going to reduce global temperatures. If the carbon tax is such a good thing, why isn't every other country in the Western world doing it? The President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, did not make a commitment to a carbon tax when he came here. Why would he? America is in financial uncertainty at the moment. Europe is in meltdown. Carbon taxes are not on the radars or the agendas of those countries.

The member for Oxley talked about the 500 biggest polluters that are going to be hit with a carbon tax. Labor denigrates the biggest polluters but they should be praising them because these so-called biggest polluters are in fact our biggest companies. They are producing things. They are making things. They are mining companies. They are abattoirs. They are doing a great job by making and producing things and moreover employing Australians, including many Australians in regional areas. It was only last week that we had the representatives from the abattoir industry here talking with members of parliament. They are deeply concerned about a carbon tax that they know is going to cost jobs and production. If the abattoirs go over 25,000 tonnes of emissions, they are going to have to reduce that so that they come in under that level and do not have to pay a carbon tax. They can do that either by stopping work or by reducing their throughput. Why would an abattoir want to close its doors and lay people off? Why would an abattoir want to put less stock through when people are hungry? That is what is going to happen under a carbon tax.

I know the carbon tax is going to hit Regional Express airlines, based at Wagga Wagga, very severely. The airline industry is already squeezed by low return rates and low profits and the carbon tax is going to be a big hit on Regional Express. Regional Express is a linkage for people in metropolitan areas to come to regional Australia. It is also a vital link for people in regional Australia to go to metropolitan areas for all sorts of things, many of which are related to business and also health issues. Unfortunately, we do not always have the health services and the specialists available in regional areas. These people need to be able to get on aeroplanes to go to Sydney, Melbourne and other areas to consult specialists and this is going to have a big impact on them through the additional price that they are going to have to pay on their tickets. Perhaps less viable routes might even be looked at by Regional Express and other airlines. This is all due to the carbon tax or is certainly not helped by it at the very least.

The next election will be a referendum on the carbon tax. The last one should have been. It could have been if the Prime Minister, five days out from the election, had not said, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' Had the Prime Minister been truthful and said, 'Yes, I will contemplate putting in a carbon tax' or 'Yes, unequivocally there will be a carbon tax under a government I lead' then maybe the vote would have been different. But the Labor Party was elected with the help of the regional Independents, the sell-out Independents, and the one Green member of the House of Representatives and on 24 February last year the Prime Minister announced that her government would introduce a carbon tax. As she announced it the Greens leader, the quasi Prime Minister, Senator Bob Brown, stood there front and centre, taking all the glory and the kudos for the fact that a carbon tax would be introduced. Let me tell you that the Greens are no friends of business. Certainly the Greens are no friends of regional Australia. They have shown that time and again. The next election will be a vote on the carbon tax. The 72 members of parliament who betrayed their communities by voting for the carbon tax will be condemned at the next election.

Earlier in this matter of public importance discussion the member for Hunter said that people in his electorate, the coalminers and aluminium smelter workers, would laugh at the member for Indi for the comments that she made and the fact that she said that there would be job losses as a result of the carbon tax. He said they would laugh. Certainly no-one is laughing who has a job at the moment but perhaps will not have a job under the carbon tax. They certainly will not be laughing at the member for Hunter. In fact, they will be angry, just as people right across Australia are angry, that the Prime Minister went back on her word. They are angry that the Prime Minister's Labor people and the sell-out Independents and the Green voted in favour of a carbon tax that they were promised would not occur. The Prime Minister and the Labor government had no mandate for this legislation. Now it is in; unfortunately it is coming like a steam train, like a train wreck, on 1 July.

The coalition will continue to fight this carbon tax. If elected, the coalition will repeal this carbon tax as the first order of business in the 44th Parliament. The opposition leader has said that. We have said time and again that we will repeal it, and we will. We will continue to fight the good fight against the carbon tax because we know in our heart of hearts that it is bad policy. Indeed, the member for Makin knows in his heart of hearts, and other members opposite know in their heart of hearts, that it is bad policy too. But to form government the Prime Minister has gone back on her word, as she has done in relation to the carbon tax and so many other things, including this morning the private health insurance rebate. She has gone back on her word and introduced things that she said unequivocally she would not introduce. If Labor attempts to block the scrapping of the carbon tax, we will go to a double dissolution election. That is on the record. Australians are already facing substantial cost-of-living pressures and the carbon tax will only have a very disadvantageous impact there.

I know that in my own electorate of Riverina small businesses are very worried at the moment, not just because of the carbon tax but also because of the fact that water security is not there anymore. Fly over Griffith at the moment and, in contrast to a few short years ago, you see lush fields of green everywhere as the farmers are actively engaged in what they do best: food production. For the benefit of the House, farmers are people who till the soil to grow the food we eat. This year is the Australian Year of the Farmer. Farmers did not need a carbon tax to be foisted upon them in this their special year. It is an important year.

Soon, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority will announce its plan. This follows previous ill-informed and misguided attempts in the authority's guide and then in its draft. A farmer at Griffith has made sure anyone flying overhead sees what he thinks of the authority's efforts to date. Hanwood's Steve Graham has ploughed 'Jam the Plan' into his paddock in letters large enough to see from the air. He said it is important to remind people that Griffith is not going to back down and that a united front is needed to ensure that this vibrant regional community not only survives but thrives into the future. That is the case with all communities in regional Australia, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott. I know that in your seat of Maranoa people do not want to just survive, they do not want to just hang on. They want to thrive. They deserve to thrive. They grow the food to feed this nation and to feed other nations as well.

Mr Graham summed up the crux of the water issue when he said that people have a right to sell their water but that the third-party impact has locals worried. They are also worried about a carbon tax. And, as he added, the more water that is sold out of the area—out of any irrigation area—the higher the user fees faced by irrigators. The water issue is about food security, home-grown food availability, reasonable grocery costs and the sustaining of regional Australia. Grocery costs are going to go up and up under a carbon tax. Small businesses which are operating at the moment but which cannot compete with the big duopoly will see their costs go up and up. Their power costs are going to go up. Unfortunately, these days people are fighting cost-of-living pressures. They are extremely worried about the fact that they may not be able to fill their car as often as they used to. When those sorts of things happen parents stop taking their kids to sport and they stop taking their kids to the movies, and it has an impact upon the whole community. This carbon tax is not only going to have an impact on small business; it extends throughout the community and is going to have a huge impact on families. A bad water plan is not going to benefit the environment, and I and my Nationals colleagues will not in any way support any plan which will harm the people we represent. We certainly do not support a bad carbon tax. (Time expired)

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