Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Since the Prime Minister found it very hard to comprehend, as he was saying, let me try to simplify it for him. Here's the big tip—are you ready? Are you ready for it? When taxes go up, costs go up. When costs for businesses go up, they pass them on to consumers. And then guess what happens to prices! Have a guess! Guess which direction they go!

An opposition member: They go up.

Up! The second point the Prime Minister made was to suggest that the policy Labor is introducing was in fact a coalition policy. No, it was not. At what point, Mr Speaker, have you seen a coalition government stand before the Australian people and say they want to introduce a carbon tax? That is not our policy. It never has been our policy. All that government has done is to take an existing coalition framework, unwrap it, reuse the wrapping and hide a punitive carbon tax inside it. That carbon tax is going to impact every single business within that scheme—all 215—and the cost will be passed on, of course. This is the exact problem that we have pointed out.

The third point I'll make in response to the Prime Minister's comments—

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