Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The minister cannot even get herself to concede the point that her government's own Treasury modelling shows that, by 2050, GDP will be $100 billion lower than it would be without a carbon tax and that real wages will be six per cent lower than they would be without a carbon tax. Is there any point in time in the future when the government expects that the reduction in real wages, compared to a scenario without a carbon tax, is going to plateau? I refer to chart 5-12 on real wages, which has been published on page 88 and just keeps going down and down and down. Is there a time when this downwards trending line, which is the change in real wages under the government's carbon tax, is actually going to plateau? Is it expected to then increase again or will it continue to reduce, reduce and reduce further? If so, why should people not be allowed to have a say on whether they are happy to have a carbon tax under which emissions will continue to increase, where real wages will be lower than they would be without a carbon tax and where the economy will be smaller than it would be without a carbon tax?