Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

In her answers today, Senator Wong again refuses to acknowledge that this whole carbon tax legislative process is based on one of the greatest political lies in recent political history—that is, 'there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead', a statement made by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, six days before the last election and then repeated in the days preceding the election. The government puts forward economy-wide percentages in the context of the cost increases that will apply to households, to business and to power prices but, as we have seen from questions asked by the opposition today, those things are quite variable and in some cases, like the ACT, they appear to be in excess of the predictions made under the modelling.

The modelling is economy-wide modelling, which does not take into account regional differences. In small regional communities such as Flinders Island or King Island, which are dependent on shipping to get all their goods and services on and off the island, or, for that matter, in a state such as Tasmania, which again is dependent on shipping and airlines for freight service on and off the island, there is a disproportionate effect. According to the advice that people on King Island have recently been given, for shipping the additional cost of the fuel levy and the carbon tax combined will be 12.9 per cent, and that is before GST. There will be about another 1.3 per cent on top of that for the fuel levy and the carbon tax, just for shipping things on and off King Island. As I indicated yesterday, King Island beef and King Island cheese are two significant brands in the Australian food sector—iconic brands, I would have to say. They are the best known brands in the country. The employees of those small businesses and the farmers who support them are disproportionately affected by the carbon tax, which is based on the lie: 'there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead'.

But the government has taken no account of that. It has not done any modelling to understand those regional impacts or the small business impacts. There is no support for small business. The owners of the little coffee shop next to my office tell me that their power bill is going to go up in excess of $6,000. They are not seeing any support. They are going to have to make a couple of thousand extra coffees, for example, to pay for that increase. A number of other imposts are being placed on businesses by this Labor government, particularly around their employment and wage costs. So, again, incremental increases in costs are being imposed by this government across the board. The government tries to separate them out by indicating that they are small in their own right and do not have a major impact; but, when you add them all up, you have a significant impact on the cost of doing business and that cost is being driven up by this government and its broader policies.

With respect to the carbon tax and agriculture, dairy farmers will be looking at an additional $10,000 on average for power costs for an irrigated dairy farm. Let us not mention the fertiliser and other input costs that farmers also have. Of course, we know that the processors will not be interested in giving dairy farmers extra money. The processors are more likely to pass back costs to the dairy farmers because they are playing in a global market and their competitors are not subject to the carbon tax that is being imposed on Australian dairy farmers. There will be the additional $10,000 cost on average for an irrigated dairy farm, and then farmers will be looking at a similar amount coming back from the processors. All of this is adding up—and of course there is no assistance. There is the Carbon Farming Initiative. However, we understand, after having properly scrutinised that piece of legislation, that it is unlikely to have much effect before the next election at least. But we know that the carbon tax starts at the end of next week.

The government continues to dishonestly suggest to the Australian community that there is going to be a small impact from this carbon tax, but every single business and every single household is going to be impacted by it and they are going to feel it. For small businesses that are not compensated, I think they are quite justified in feeling the lie: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' (Time expired)