Senate debates
Monday, 7 November 2011
Bills
Clean Energy Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Household Assistance Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Tax Laws Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Customs Tariff Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall Charge — General) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Auctions) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Fixed Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Customs) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Excise) Bill 2011, Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011, Climate Change Authority Bill 2011; In Committee
1:05 pm
Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source
Senator, let me go through this. I listened to you in silence. Most businesses will pass on the price, and that is why there is assistance being provided to households—to reflect the 0.7 per cent CPI increase, which I must say is significantly less than the price impact of the GST when it was introduced. There are businesses who cannot pass on the price. Businesses in what I used to call the emissions-intensive trade exposed sector—I do not know if we still use that term—are provided with a very substantial amount of assistance. I think it is $9.2 billion over the forward estimates under the Jobs and Competitiveness Program directly to deal with those issues. If the senator cared about business costs, he would care about two things: he would care about the fact that he is imposing a higher cost to achieve the same environmental outcomes through his policy—
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