Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Electricity prices have gone up by 61 per cent. Gas prices over four years have increased on average across Australia by 37 per cent. Water and sewerage rates across Australia have increased by 58 per cent. Petrol prices across Australia are up by eight per cent. Health costs have increased by 20 percent. If you go to the doctor or you need some medical attention, health costs have gone up by 20 per cent across Australia in this government's term. The price of bread has gone up by nine per cent across Australia and the price of food on average has gone up by 13 per cent across Australia in four years. Fruit and vegetables have gone up by 20 per cent and rent, where people do not own their homes, has increased by 25 per cent over the last four years.

We have these two worlds: this totally unreal world that the honourable members opposite are trying to pretend we live in—as if things just go according to whatever Treasury has modelled—and the real world of people who are going to the supermarket, the people who are going to the service station to fill up their car, the people paying for their rent, the people using public transport, the people driving on the freeways—the millions of ordinary Australians and their world. The great English statesman, Benjamin Disraeli, said 150 or so years ago that between two nations there was no connection. At that time he was talking about the rich and the poor. There are two nations here between which there is no connection—between the government and the real people of Australia, because these costs are going up and we have not even got to the carbon tax.

What is the carbon tax going to do to Australians? Just today in question time we had an example of transport. What the government expects of their fuel excise over the next forward estimates is a $920 million increase in revenue. That $920 million is going to get passed on by every transport company that is transporting goods around this country. If we are talking about transport, consider the service station owner who has just tendered out for his electricity under this competitive arrangement and in the tender documents that came back there was a carbon tax component of $13,141. That represented just over 18 per cent on his annual bill, and yet we are being told that it will have only a few dollars impact. This one service station is faced with an 18 per cent increase on what is being projected for the carbon tax.

The City of Sydney will have to collect an additional $921,000 in rates and the cities of Wollongong and Blacktown will need to collect almost half a million dollars extra in rates. If anyone wants to check this, I make this suggestion: ring up your local council and ask them how much are they factoring in for the carbon tax in terms of their expenditure in the next year. I have spoken to my local councils and they are factoring in a very significant amount for what they will have to find. In other words, how much will rates go up because of this carbon tax?

I have mentioned just two things. One is transport costs for every good that is supplied and provided around this country, which flows through to food prices. It flows through to the goods that we buy from the shelves of shops which are usually trucked in from somewhere else around the country, often overnight. The other is the councils. When the street lights are turned on, when the waste is disposed of—all of that attracts a carbon tax. Somehow, these people come in here and pretend that this is not going to have an impact. But, as I said, you cannot be saying it impacts upon only 500 companies in this country and yet come in here with a motion which says there is an urgent need to talk about financial assistance to families—and they are spending $36 million on media advertising to sell this particular proposal—the one in which the carbon tax does not speak its name. It is hidden away in the budget as a nice little line item under the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. That is on top of the $70 million this government is already spending on advertising. It is estimated that this government is spending something like $270,000 per day of Australian taxpayers' money in order to advertise this urgent need to provide financial assistance for something they tell us is not going to affect us.

This is a joke. It comes from a government that is not even a joke. This is a government that is dysfunctional and a Prime Minister who evades questions she is asked here in question time. This is a Prime Minister who told the unionists she was furious about a labour agreement and yet turned around and said she knew nothing about it. This is a totally dysfunctional government. I hope that some of the backbenchers in the Labor Party do go doorknocking, because what they will hear is that Australian people are totally fed up with this government, with the lies, with the dissembling and with the dysfunction. They want some security. It is about time we delivered hope and reward and opportunity to people of Australia and that will only come by having an election.

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