Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to stand up and speak to this matter of public importance before the House this afternoon. What a surprise! Here we go again: the scare campaign. We saw it last year being rolled out by the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, commenting on price rises. In June 2011 we heard that the hit on Australians' cost of living would be 'almost unimaginable', and the Productivity Commission found that if Australia were to impose a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme it would dramatically raise prices to consumers. We heard the Leader of the Opposition saying in August last year in parliament:

The thing about the carbon tax is that it … will clean out people's wallets and it will wipe out jobs big time.

We heard the Leader of the Opposition saying, in June 2011, on radio 4BC:

It will destroy the steel industry, the cement industry, the aluminium industry, the motor industry and it will be, over time, the death of heavy manufacturing in Australia.'

That is what we have heard time and time again from the opposition: that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost. The Leader of the Opposition said that 'entire towns, like Whyalla, will be wiped off the map'. And we have heard it again today from the member for Indi.

We heard it over the weekend as well. We heard the O'Farrell government carrying on about electricity prices and once again trying to shift the blame onto the carbon price. The fact is that the O'Farrell government should start being honest to householders in New South Wales and acknowledge that the biggest contributor to increases in electricity prices is rising network charges. The question is: when is the O'Farrell government going to actually start doing something about tackling network charges and taking that pressure off households in New South Wales? We are taking the pressure off, because we are providing tax cuts to 2.2 million people across New South Wales and helping nine out of 10 households with household assistance of $10.10 per week.

In the past we have also heard from Senator Barnaby Joyce about the $100 leg of lamb. Finally, last night on Q&A there was this question to Senator Joyce:

Senator Joyce, in November 2011, you said that citizens would not be happy when they were paying $100 for a roast under the carbon price. Now that the scheme has been in for some six months, this seems highly unlikely. Was your original comment intended to be hyperbole, or were you being deliberately deceptive?

Senator Joyce's answer: 'No, I tell you what, um, er, there's a whole range of things.' He went on to say: 'Okay, I agree it is not going to make it $100.' We are really glad that Senator Joyce was able to set the record straight last night—just in case we had not figured it out yet—that lamb roast is not going to go up $100.

And of course we have heard all about jobs. We heard the member for Indi talking about jobs today. We heard her saying that Australian jobs are disappearing. And I agree: Australian jobs are disappearing—but not at the hands of the federal Labor government. They are disappearing at the hands of state Liberal and LNP governments all over this country.

Campbell Newman is sacking public servants left, right and centre. I cannot do a mobile office in my electorate without someone coming up and telling me they have lost their job because of decisions of the state LNP government. If we want to talk about job losses, let us be honest with the Australian people. We have already heard the shadow Treasurer and the Leader of the Opposition saying: 'Elect me. We will make savings by cutting jobs. We will sack public servants.' That is how the opposition supports jobs in this country.

We have heard other fear campaigns. Yesterday in the Daily Telegraph we saw the headline, 'Carbon collapse'. You do not want to read past the heading because you would have read that a lot of businesses in the manufacturing sector in Australia acknowledge that the biggest pressure is the high value of the Australian dollar. You do not want to delve into the article to see what it is all about.

We saw a further heading today, in the Daily Telegraph, 'Carbon tax is sinking tourism'. About three-quarters of the way through that article it does not state that it is a correction but restates yesterday's Daily Telegraph report and talks about the number of businesses which have closed over a certain period. It is interesting that today's article has different figures based on different time frames. Yesterday it was up until 1 March and today it has figures up to 12 months to 31 December 2012. So, when we talk about the Australian Securities and Investments Commission data showing 10,632 businesses going into voluntary administration, only six months of that crosses over with the carbon price; but they do not want to state that fact.

I am happy to talk about the figures from the article yesterday and the number of businesses which have gone into voluntary liquidation or administration over the last 12 months. For 12 months up to 1 March 2013, 10,632 businesses closed, but let us also talk about how, in that 12-month period, 186,583 new companies were registered, according to ASIC figures. If we want to quote figures, let us be honest about those figures. Let us give the Australian people all of the information which is out there about these allegations.

I am always in awe of the detailed analysis and research that the opposition put in when deciding their position on a government policy. They get up in the morning, they read the newspaper, they put out a press release and they prepare an MPI. Then they come and argue an MPI based on what they read in the paper that day or the day before. That is what we are talking about. What we see from the opposition is a bit like playing bluff in poker. We have seen the member for Indi today quoting industries and how they say it is all doom and gloom. I say to the member for Indi: I am happy to see her industry group and to raise her an industry group. In recent surveys of businesses the Australian Industry Group noted that it appears the businesses surveyed had overestimated the impact of the carbon price on electricity prices and that these estimates are not consistent with the PPI or CPI estimates. The survey found that most business estimates of electricity price increases were 2.1c to 2.3c per kilowatt hour. This is broadly consistent with Treasury modelling of projected increases in electricity prices of 10 per cent and actual jurisdictional price determinations. The Australian Industry Group highlights that recent electricity prices have mainly been driven by increases in network costs and that this will continue to be a source of upward pressure on electricity costs. I call on the opposition to start quoting those Industry Group comments as opposed to the ones they bandy around in this House all too often.

We have heard the member for Indi talking about insulting businesses. I agree: it is an insult to businesses for members of the opposition time and time again to come in here and start twisting the words of businesses on why they have shut down part or the whole of their business. We heard it again today on the Penrice closure. On 18 January 2013, Penrice announced it would cease production of soda ash, partially cited in the introduction of a carbon price. What the member for Indi did not state is that, when asked whether the soda ash plant would have closed without the carbon price in operation, Penrice's general manager of chemical operations said yes.

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