Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the medium- to long-term impacts of the carbon tax on the Australian economy?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. And I advise the House that, whilst the Leader of the Opposition has a horse running wild in the top paddock, he has a Senate that is not prepared to pass one of the bills that will actually improve economic growth in Australia and create jobs, and that is the bill that repeals the carbon tax. The fact of the matter is that modelling commissioned—not by this government; modelling commissioned by the previous Labor government—identifies that the carbon tax would actually detract from economic growth. It would actually cost jobs. It would actually cost the economy. Now, Labor are sticking like glue to the carbon tax. They own the carbon tax. It is their creation, and they are prepared to die defending the carbon tax. The carbon tax—

Opposition members: Hear, hear!

'Hear, hear!', they say, 'Hear, hear!' They are all there defending the carbon tax, which costs jobs, which means less economic growth, and which at the end of the day is going to cost the Australian economy. The cumulative loss of output would be $22 billion by 2020 as a result of the carbon tax. What is more, this will rise to $175 billion as a cost to the Australian economy by 2030. That is in 2012 dollars—$175 billion to the Australian economy by having the carbon tax.

Yet Labor is determined to fight to the death to keep this tax. You can be sure that, if Labor are ever elected, they will reintroduce the carbon tax. If they are so absolutely committed to the carbon tax here in opposition after losing an election, they would not be afraid to reintroduce it. They would not be afraid to go back and reintroduce it. They might not promise it at the election; we know they have form in that regard. They never tell you about a carbon tax before an election but you can be as sure as the sun will rise up in the morning that they will introduce it after the election, because the carbon tax is in the Labor Party's DNA, even though it costs jobs.

As New South Wales Treasury said, it is going to cost 31,000 jobs in New South Wales by 2030, and yet Labor is defending this to the death. There is the impact on wages, the impact on industry, and the impact on the health and education sector, which is not compensated for the carbon tax. It flows right through the economy. It flows through to every single area of production, every single area of activity. Yet Labor is defending it to the end. The problem is that the Labor Party does not know what it stands for other than the fact that it is prepared to hit the average Australian worker.