Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. I now want to speak on a very important matter for Australia and particularly for South Australia, and that is the impact of the carbon tax. I have spoken about the job losses we have already seen under this government, and that is the climate in which the carbon tax was introduced. It is a tax based on a lie. We all remember that quote, when six days before the last election the current Prime Minister said, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' It was explicit and unequivocal.

Not a single member of the current government, not a single member of the Labor party and not a single Labor candidate campaigned on the introduction of a carbon tax. The lesson from Australian political history and from politics around the world is that a party that says one thing before an election and does another thing in government pays a very high price at the ballot box.

This is a tax that will impact on every facet of our lives. It is going to increase the cost of everything and put further financial pressures on businesses within Australia. Businesses are calling the carbon tax 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. Many Australian businesses were surviving on wafer-thin profit margins before the introduction of the carbon tax. All the carbon tax has done is put their budget bottom line into the red. ASIC reports that over the past 12 months to March there were 10,632 company collapses—886 a month. The number of firms being placed into administration is now 12 per cent higher than it was during the GFC. While the carbon tax is not the sole reason for these closures, the carbon tax is adding to the financial burdens of already struggling firms, tipping them over the edge of profitability.

Greg Evans, the chief economist of ACCI, has stated, 'Rapidly escalating energy prices caused by the carbon tax and other green programs are taking their toll on many Australian businesses'. He went on to state that this is already being demonstrated in job losses, deferred investment and, in the worst cases, business closures. Businesses in industries like steel, cement, chemicals and plastics, car and car component manufacturing, food and grocery processing and aluminium and glass have been crippled by the introduction of the carbon tax. These industries are all electricity-heavy industries, and the carbon tax has caused their electricity prices to skyrocket. You only need to look at the list of businesses that have cut jobs since the carbon tax was announced and then introduced. The introduction of the carbon tax is just sending manufacturing and jobs overseas to countries that are not crippling their industries with unnecessary costs for emissions. In food and grocery industries, the cost is only compounded, increasing the cost of transport, power, refrigeration and logistics.

I turn to South Australia and the impact of the carbon tax on jobs and manufacturing there. The carbon tax is having and will continue to have a negative effect on jobs and manufacturing across the state. On 2 November 2012, Holden announced that it would cut 170 jobs at the Elizabeth plant. That came on top of two previous job cuts under this government. On 18 January 2013, Penrice Soda announced that it will cease soda ash production at their Adelaide plant in June 2013. They have been producing soda ash there for the past 70 years—in the forties, the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, eighties, the nineties and the noughties. Now, under this government, they have decided that they will cease soda production. This will cause the loss of up to 70 jobs at the plant. The jobs will now go overseas, as Penrice have decided to import soda ash from now on. They specifically cited the carbon tax as having had a major bearing on this decision.

On 16 January 2013, Boral announced the loss of 790 jobs across its Australian operations. This will impact on local operations in South Australia. Peter Macks, the principal at a local Adelaide based insolvency firm, Macks Advisory, has stated publicly that the carbon tax has been quite debilitating for many hotel operators who have been struggling for a long time. You only need to look at the Belair Hotel, a hotel in my electorate. I raised this issue in this chamber late last year. The hotel's off peak power rate increased by 45 per cent. The bill clearly listed 'carbon adjustment' as the main reason for the increase. The effect of this, according to the hotel manager, was either jobs or prices. The first post carbon tax electricity bill—a monthly bill—of the Lakes Resort Hotel in South Australia cost them an extra $3500 a month due to the carbon adjustment alone. These costs will have an impact either on price or on jobs.

The carbon tax is a bad tax. It was introduced dishonestly. It has crippled industry. The single biggest thing that this parliament could do to help with the cost of living, to help jobs and to help the economy would be to abolish the job-destroying carbon tax. That would restore the confidence of and give support to the manufacturing industry in Australia. It would support the creation of local jobs. The coalition, in government, will abolish the carbon tax.

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