Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister explain how scrapping the carbon tax will constituents in my electorate of Capricornia? When is the carbon tax scheduled to increase?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. I can assure her that scrapping the carbon tax will indeed be good for the people of Capricornia. It will certainly help the mining industry because the carbon tax is designed to make the price of coal prohibitive. It will certainly help the trucking industry, because under members opposite, there was going to be an extra carbon tax hit on the trucking industry from 1 July. It will help the cattle industry, because abattoirs are some of the businesses hit hardest by the carbon tax. But above all else, it will help the households of Capricornia by giving them a $550 a year bonus. That is what scrapping the carbon tax will do. The carbon tax is a nine per cent impost on power prices.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga will desist.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a $9 billion handbrake on our economy, as well as being a $550 a year hit on the households of Australia. That is why it must go—

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will desist.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and that is why, if this parliament is serious about helping the struggling families of this country, it will get rid of this carbon tax this week. Without the carbon tax, the aluminium industry will be 60 per cent bigger; the iron industry will be 20 per cent bigger. Without the carbon tax our cumulative GDP by 2050 will be one trillion dollars greater. Without the carbon tax, our gross national income per person will be nearly $5,000 a year higher by the middle of this century. That is why abolishing the carbon tax is a massive economic reform. If we are serious about reforming our economy we will get rid of the carbon tax and we will get rid of the carbon tax this week.

Only one thing stands in the way of getting rid of the carbon tax and that, of course, is the federal opposition and its leader. Not only does the Labor Party want to keep the carbon tax, they want it to go up. They want it to go up on 1 July by five per cent. How shameful. This is the Leader of the Opposition—

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Six thousand dollars is shameful!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga will desist.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

who said, before the election, that he wanted to terminate the carbon tax. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: be the terminator. Do not be the vacillator. Do not be the procrastinator. Do not be the fabricator. Be the terminator and get rid of this toxic tax this week. You are the only one standing in the way of Australian—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Isaacs is warned.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

families earning $550 a year more.