Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise the issue of the effect of the carbon tax on local councils—in particular on the Liverpool City Council in south-west Sydney. Last week I attended a council meeting with the member for Werriwa. Several councillors raised their great concern about how they would be able to balance their budget under the carbon tax. It appears they will have to wait until Sunday to find out more information, but in the meantime they face great uncertainty about what will be taxed and what expenses the local council will face.

In the financial year to June 2008, Liverpool City Council spent $2.4 million on electricity. This figure is for the period before the recent very large increases in the price of electricity, so for the last financial year Liverpool council is looking at somewhere around $3 million for its electricity bill. If the rumours we hear are true, Liverpool council could be faced with a $500,000, $600,000 or $700,000 increase in its electricity bill. This places the council in a position where it does not know how it will find the extra $500,000 or $600,000. It has two choices: cut back on services or raise its rates to residents. If it cuts back on services, what is it going to do? Is it going to turn off the street lights at night? That will add to residents' security fears. Is it going to cut back on the childcare centres and early childhood services it operates? Is it going to cut back on its migrant resource centres? Is it going to cut back on its rubbish and recycling collection? These are decisions that will face every council in our nation in the coming weeks—what services they will cut back because of this new tax that Labor is implementing. Perhaps there is just one more thing we can be certain about, that this pervasive tax will weave its way through the economy, both with a devastating effect on the cost of living and placing Australian businesses at a competitive disadvantage internationally. Or, as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry put it, the impact of the carbon tax 'will be widespread, cascading throughout the economy, adding inflationary pressures, diminishing competitiveness and reducing earnings'. And all for what?

Does anyone in this parliament seriously think that this tax will reduce the temperature of the globe? Can someone stand up and tell us how much this carbon tax will reduce the temperature by, because that is what it is aimed at doing? If we cannot answer that, why are we putting our local councils under so much pressure where they will have to reduce so many services? (Time expired)