Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to take note of answers given by Senator Wong I cannot fail to respond to one of the points made by Senator Gallacher in his contribution to this taking note debate. Senator Gallacher said that the government stood by the modelling of the government's carbon tax by Treasury. I find it extraordinary that they put so much faith in the modelling by Treasury that is making predictions about the future and yet they will not even stand by a simple promise that they made at the last election. It is a promise that will haunt the government to their political grave and will probably result in the demise of this Prime Minister. The words of that promise are immortal words that are etched in the memory of every Australian today: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' Well, the carbon tax has been legislated. Ms Gillard joined up with the Greens party to impose on the Australian people a tax that is unwarranted, unnecess­ary, expensive and going to be ineffective.

Despite Senator Wong's claims that the government does not have a crystal ball, in her own words the modelling suggests that the carbon price is going to be somewhere between $29 and $55 in only a few short years. We know that, where countries in the rest of the world have enacted an emissions trading scheme or some other carbon dioxide mitigation scheme, the prices of emissions permits have fallen dramatically. We also know that emissions themselves have not fallen dramatically. That will be the case with this government's policy as well because, under the same modelling that this government stands by, Australia's emissions will increase from 578 million tonnes to 621 million tonnes by 2020—they are going to increase in the next eight years.

So why are we having a carbon dioxide tax? We know that prices are going to continue to rise. It is going to put up the price of electricity. The government estima­tes a rise of up to 10 per cent, but private enterprise is saying the rise is going to be much, much higher than that. The electricity generators themselves are predicting a 20 per cent rise. Gas prices are scheduled to go up by about nine per cent in the first year alone, and they will continue to rise because the government has set a minimum floor price on carbon dioxide emissions for industry. Those costs will be passed on to every single consumer and every single business right across the country. That is why the Austra­lian economy and the Australian people cannot afford this broken promise by this malign and very poor government.

The government claims, of course, that it is going to be paying compensation. It acknowledges that because it knows it is going to be hurting families, and that is the purpose of this carbon dioxide tax. It is not about the environment whatsoever. We know the globe has not warmed over the last 15 years in total and we know that emissions have been rising over that time. How can you explain that? Even the government's paid mouthpiece, Professor Tim Flannery, who is a professor of anthropology but a self-designated climate change expert, has said he cannot explain why the globe is cooling. The entire scam that is being perpetrated upon the Australian people in compliance with other international jurisdictions, including organisations like the IPCC—which is conveniently forgotten in this debate but was used as the source of authority by Senator Wong when she was previously in the climate change portfolio—has been comprehensively debunked. The alarmist propaganda has been proved to be untrue and the falsehoods in the IPCC reports have come to light. Of course, that will not be acknowledged by the government, who will not even stand by a crystal-clear promise to the Australian people at the last election.

What the government does not say is that the accumulated cost for the taxpayer over the first nine years of the carbon tax will be $132 billion. It is going to create a massive black hole as compensation is handed out and the government uses taxpayers' money to buy shares in green projects which the private sector will not back. If you ask me and if you ask the Australian people to make an assessment of who is better equipped to make an investment, whether it is the private sector or the government, just have a look at the track record of this government. They invested in pink batts; then they invested the same amount to take them out when houses burnt down and people were killed. They are now investing in lumbering the Australian economy with a carbon tax which is unnecessary and ineffective. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.