Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about the damaging effect that Labor's carbon tax will have on local businesses in the Casey electorate. As has been well publicised during the debate on Labor's carbon tax, trade-exposed businesses will be particularly affected by the tax. There has been a great focus in the media on some of the larger trade-exposed manufacturers in Australia—and quite rightly so. Because, whilst they will have the cost burdens of the carbon tax built into all of their prices, they will be competing against imported products that do not have the carbon price built into their prices, and, of course, it is an escalating carbon price which goes up year after year like an escalator in a supermarket.

But there has not been as much national focus on some of the trade-exposed smaller manufacturers. Across the Casey electorate, in the outer east of Melbourne in the Yarra Valley, there are many businesses which are successful manufacturers and which do not mind competing on a level playing field. They have been doing so for some time, and they have a number of cost burdens that they have had to deal with over the years. The carbon tax will put them at a particular disadvantage, and the government's so-called compensation plans—even if everyone believes them—will have absolutely no positive effect on the companies concerned. In the time available I will explain why with just a few examples.

There is Garden City Plastics, which is Australia's premier plastic pot manufacturer; in fact, it is about the only one left. They manufacture most of the plastic pots we all see at Bunnings—or, for that matter, anywhere else—if we go to buy a plastic pot. The government would say, 'The price of these products will increase and people will be compensated, so what is the problem?' The big problem is that everyday Australian consumers, even if they get this carbon tax compensation and it is adequate, do not get to choose to buy a Garden City plastic pot; they go into Bunnings or a wholesaler and have no choice of which brand of plastic pot they buy. The contracts for Bunnings and for the wholesalers are for 1,000, for 10,000 or—sometimes—for 50,000 units, and the competition is all foreign. So it is quite conceivable that manufacturers such as Garden City Pots will miss out on contracts right across the board, and no amount of compensation for the consumer will help the company concerned. Of course, the decision on whether a wholesaler buys 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 or 50,000 pots is based on price.

There are other examples of companies which are affected by the carbon tax and which might not come immediately to mind. In my electorate and in many others there is light manufacturing. I know that my friend and colleague behind me, the member for Gilmore, would certainly have kitchen cabinet manufacturers in her electorate. Increasingly such industries are, through technology and trade, becoming more trade exposed. They do not just compete against the kitchen cabinet manufacturer around the corner; they compete against a cheaper flat-packed product, and increasingly they are competing against full kitchens which are made to measure and can be imported. Those on this side of the House understand that. I took the Leader of the Opposition out to Yarra Valley Cabinet Makers just a couple of weeks ago, and that very point was made. It is a highly successful business which has been operating for 20 years and is facing the imposts associated with the carbon tax. In many ways companies such as Yarra Valley Cabinet Makers are the silent victims of the tax.

There is also Crown Industries, which is a small business in my electorate producing coffee urns. It is the competition to what we would know as the Burco—coffee percolators for catering. Crown Industries is a manufacturing firm producing these percolators, and it competes— (Time expired)