Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Eloquently, of course. But let me just bring some of them to your attention. One of the fundamentals of the introduction of the carbon price that Labor introduced was that it would be connected to a floor price. That was fundamental to the introduction. And we have had enough quotes for the day, but, to quote the Prime Minister, it was to 'give business stability', to give 'certainty' so that we could 'get used to the transition'. Well, that is gone. So, again, I just reiterate the point that this is a government that, on a daily basis, will say one thing and, in the blink of an eye, do another thing—continually. Nearly daily we are seeing this transition of paranoia on policy, jumping all over the place. There was also the halting of support for the industry via the clean technology investment grants. I can hardly keep up with the changes, given that there have been eight more recently. This carbon tax is nothing more than a tax on electricity. We are told continuously that mums and dads will not pay the carbon tax.

An opposition member: Rubbish.

Exactly. It is rubbish. It will go into the pockets of every mum and dad. This government will put its hands into the pockets of every business and everyone who relies on a fridge, on a toaster or on a kettle. You will not be able to escape the carbon tax. It is purely a tax on electricity.

The previous speaker spoke about our colleagues in Queensland, with reference to the cuts they are having to make to the budget up there. Of course Queensland will not be able to escape the tentacles of the carbon tax. But let me remind Australia, and let me remind this parliament, why, as a result of the Labor government's capacity to run an economy, these dreadful cuts up there are having to be undertaken at the moment. We had a government in Queensland—we just got rid of them—that was simply unable to take money out of one account and stick it into another account to pay our hardworking doctors and nurses in Queensland. For years and years, that task was beyond them. When it comes to introducing a system like the carbon tax, we do not need to go any further than the insulation program. I think 200 homes were burnt to the ground, with a horrible loss of life.

But don't just take my word on how much this carbon tax is affecting the economy. The growth in GDP of 0.06 per cent in the June quarter was less than half of the 1.4 per cent recorded in the March quarter. The surprise was that much of the growth in the June quarter was due to government spending. The government comes in here daily and tells you how strong the economy is. Yes, there are some strong indicators in our economy. But I can assure you that the strong indicators in our economy are not due to fiscal management; they are due to supply and demand, push-and-pull factors on the government. Basically, that just means we are very good at digging red and black rocks and selling them to our trading partners. When it comes to internal fiscal management, the government sector directly contributed 0.05 per cent growth in GDP through its consumption and investment. On top of this, the June quarter results included the effects of the government's sugar hit of the schoolkids bonus and carbon tax compensation package totalling $2.8 billion. This in turn boosted household disposable income and spending for that quarter.

When we look at the engine room of the economy—our small business sector and our corporate sector—company profitability continued to deteriorate, and the corporate gross operating surplus declined for the third consecutive quarter. Company profitability will be further impacted by rising input costs in coming quarters, such as rising electricity costs and transportation costs.

Further, I refer you to the Australian Industry Group/Commonwealth Bank performance indexes of August 2012. Now, these are not the coalition's words. So when you hear the government say that we come in here and scaremonger, note that I am quoting word for word from industry groups about their concerns about the carbon tax. The latest seasonally adjusted Australian Industry Group/Commonwealth Bank Australian Performance of Services Index, which is known as the Australian PSI, fell by 4.1 points in August to 42.4. This marks the seventh consecutive month that activity has contracted in those services sectors.

An opposition member: Shame!

It is a shame. In fact, no services subsector—not one—reported growth in sales or new orders this month. The only one that did was the finance and insurance subsector, which recorded a reading of above 50 points. The reasons business identified as contributing to the poor performance included weak consumer demand, which is built on the back of lack of business confidence. And why do people lack business confidence? It is because of increasing taxes. ANZ job advertisements declined by 0.08 per cent in July and by 2.3 per cent in August. And that is not coalition scaremongering; that is from the ANZ Job Advertisement Index.

The Deloitte CFO Survey for the second quarter of 2012 showed that business uncertainty had hit its highest level in over a year, with 87 per cent of company finance officers saying it was above normal; 84 per cent of CFOs said that uncertainty over Australian government policy negatively affected optimism, which was up from 79 per cent in the third quarter of 2011. Moreover, 36 per cent of CFOs said that political uncertainty significantly affected optimism, which was higher than the other factor.

They are domestic quotes, but let us go international—because all these other nations are supposed to be coming on board with an economy-wide carbon tax. Listen very carefully to members on the other side: when they talk about other nations' involvement in carbon tax, they will very carefully leave out the word 'economy-wide'. We have an economy-wide one; others have just bits and pieces. There is no other nation in the world that has an economy-wide carbon tax. In the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, in 2007-08 Australia was ranked 10th in terms of wastefulness of government spending. In 2012-2013 we had slumped to 48th. That is, Australia was ranked as far more wasteful under the Rudd-Gillard government than when Howard left office. In 2007-08 Australia was ranked 68th in terms of burden of government regulation. In 2012-2013 we are ranked 96th. But, Madam Deputy Speaker, can I leave you with one last comment before I go. It is in reference to a comment made by Mike Young, the Managing Director of BC Iron. Mike made the truthful comment: 'I know guys in New York who will not invest in Australia until this government is gone.' If you want to come into this place and talk quotes, that is a quote. Believe me, if this fight wants to have a fight on carbon tax—

Debate interrupted.

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