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

With winter approaching, the temperatures plummeting and thousands of Australians having their electricity cut off because of high electricity prices, I would like to raise something that recently happened to a family in Liverpool. Because they could not afford their electricity bills, they got a small bit of coal to try and warm their house to keep their three kids warm. Unfortunately, they did not open a window to allow for some ventilation, and those children had to go to hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning. This is one of the costs of high electricity prices in our country.

We know that the lowest 20 per cent of income earners in this country pay 3½ times as much, as a percentage of their income, for electricity as the average family does, and they pay five times as much as the 20 per cent on high incomes. That is why I call on good members of the opposition to please repeal the carbon tax before winter starts. We know that the cost is $550 for the average family. It is a regressive tax. It hits the poorest in this country the hardest. So I call on you to show good conscience, talk to your friends over there in the Senate and repeal this regressive tax at least for when winter starts so families in this country can afford their electricity bills. (Time expired)