House debates

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Bills

Clean Energy Amendment (International Emissions Trading and Other Measures) Bill 2012, Clean Energy (Charges — Excise) Amendment Bill 2012, Clean Energy (Charges — Customs) Amendment Bill 2012, Excise Tariff Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment (Per-tonne Carbon Price Equivalent) Bill 2012, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Auctions) Amendment Bill 2012; Second Reading

8:45 pm

Photo of Nola MarinoNola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Make no mistake, it is the Australian economy, our Australian businesses, industries and every family and individual who is paying Labor's $9 billion a year carbon tax cost. It is $36 billion in the first four years alone. We are all getting those power bills now and we are all seeing this cost. Whether you are in business or whether you are a family you are seeing these costs.

Our economy has been largely built on trade. We know that within OECD countries Australia has one of the highest trade to GDP ratios. This has been largely made possible by access to internationally competitive, domestically affordable power—reliable, secure access to power. Yet this government is sacrificing this competitive advantage with the world's largest and only economywide carbon tax—the world's largest and only economywide carbon tax—while at the same time putting business and industry at risk. We also know that the carbon tax is not an environmental solution at all. We know that carbon emissions will continue to rise—the government documents say so.

What we do see today with this legislation is that Labor's carbon tax is a shambles. The government has made eight structural changes in just the first few weeks since its introduction—so around the world in eight days—

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