House debates Questions without Notice
Carbon Pricing
Tony Pasin Barker, Liberal Party
2:27 pm
My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to this email from the chief executive of—
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Opposition Members:
Opposition members interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
Just put it down. The member for Barker is a new member asking an early question.
Opposition members interjecting—
Those on my left will desist. The member for Barker has the call.
Tony Pasin Barker, Liberal Party
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to correspondence received by me from the chief executive of the Master Butchers Cooperative, Mr Warren McLean, saying that the carbon tax has cost his business more than $330,000 in higher electricity and gas costs. Treasurer, what is the government doing to reduce the electricity for families and businesses?
Ms Owens interjecting—
Mr Dreyfus interjecting—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
The member for Parramatta and the member for Isaacs are warned!
Joel Fitzgibbon Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I refer you again to standing order 100(d), which is referred to again in House of Representatives Practise. I have raised this with you before. This is the fourth occasion this week when members on the government side have asked questions using names and, in this case, using a document that has not been authenticated. I ask you to rule the question out of order.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
No, I will not be ruling it out of order. Under the standing orders the letter was necessary to make sense of the question and it was authenticated. We went through this with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition earlier this week. I call the honourable the Treasurer.
Joel Fitzgibbon Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
You have had your point of order. The Treasurer has the call.
Joel Fitzgibbon Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture
Madam Speaker, standing order 100(d) is very clear. Shall I take that as a ruling—
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop Speaker
There is no point of order. The Treasurer has the call.
Joel Fitzgibbon Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture
Madam Speaker, I am asking you the question: do we consider that you are ruling—
Joe Hockey North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer
I thank the member for Barker for his very good question, because he wants to get rid of the carbon tax, and Mr Warren McLean from the Master Butchers Co-op wants to get rid of the carbon tax—in fact, Australia wants to get rid of the carbon tax. The only people who don't want to get rid of the carbon tax are the Labor Party and the Greens, who want to keep the carbon tax in place.
What is true, what is irrefutable, is that the carbon tax adds to the cost of business in Australia. As General Motors said yesterday, we have become a high-cost country for production. And as the Master Butchers Co-op have said, they are having to deal with a $330,000 increase in electricity and gas bills because of the carbon tax.
Opposition members interjecting—
That is in 2012-13. According to MBL that equates to $15,000 per employee. That is their carbon tax bill. If they cannot pass that on to customers, particularly in a global marketplace—the way, for example, Virgin said that they could not pass on the carbon tax to their customers—
Mr Husic interjecting—
Joe Hockey North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer
and Qantas said they had to absorb overwhelmingly the cost of the carbon tax. If businesses need to absorb the cost of the carbon tax, it increases the cost of production, it reduces the profitability of the business and then people start to look to invest elsewhere. It is a no-brainer.
The Labor Party does not understand that, if you keep laying taxes and more regulation on Australian businesses, sooner or later they will look for cheaper places to go and work: they will look into Asia; they will look into other parts of the world where there is no carbon tax, where there is no excessive regulation, where there is no union militancy, where there is an environment that is conducive to investment and growth.
The fact is the coalition knows this. We know that the best way to remain competitive, the best way to meet head-on the challenges of the world, is to reduce the cost of doing business in Australia—get rid of the carbon tax, get rid of the mining tax, get rid of the regulation. The Labor Party want to keep all the impediments to business growth and then they want to cry crocodile tears when people go and invest elsewhere and turn away from Australia. I say to the Labor Party: get real—if you want to really help production in Australia, get rid of the carbon tax.