Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House how repealing the carbon tax will benefit my electorate of Maranoa?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. Maranoa is one of the biggest electorates in Australia, and so a carbon tax on transport, as proposed by Labor, will add massively to the cost of doing business in Maranoa.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does anybody drive in the bush?

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

The member for Moreton is warned.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The trucking industry has estimated that Labor's carbon tax will add half a billion dollars a year—

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are there any private cars out there?

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

One more utterance and you will leave.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to the cost of transport across the nation. But it is not just the big industries that are affected by the carbon tax. It affects every aspect of our lives. For instance, in Maranoa, the Western Downs council owns the Carinya Aged Persons Hostel in Miles and the Tarcoola Retirement Hostel in Tara. Their electricity bill is estimated, with carbon tax, to be $127,000—a bill for the small towns of Tara and Miles to pay. It is $127,000 because of Labor's carbon tax.

Labor also said their carbon tax was not going to apply to agriculture. But the Australian Farm Institute has done some work on the impact of the increase in energy costs on inputs for the farm sector, and the carbon tax is already costing beef producers $2,000 a year. It is about $5,000 a year for grain growers and $9,000 for cotton production. So the reality is that farmers, who are supposed to be exempt from the carbon tax, are already paying dearly for this imposition by the Labor Party.

The facts are that if, as the Prime Minister just said, parliament does not repeal the carbon tax this week it goes up from $24.15 a tonne to $25.40 a tonne—an increase applied automatically as a result of Labor's legislation. Labor told us that this was the way for Australia to pay a fair share of the cost of dealing with global carbon emissions. But what is fair about Australia paying $25.40 per tonne when New Zealand pays $3.71 a tonne, or Europe $8.00 a tonne? Our carbon price next week is going to be three times the price of Europe's and seven times the price of New Zealand's, and, of course, our carbon tax is much more invasive than any other carbon tax around the world. It applies to much more of our economy, so the impact on Australia from Labor's carbon tax is affecting our competitiveness and our ability to provide jobs and opportunities for the people in Australia. This $9 billion hit on jobs must go, and the parliament needs to respond to that in the few days that are left.