Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Evans, I am sure that you will not remember my betting you a beer on that, mate, but I am sure we will have a beer on the result, in any event.

We are already facing substantial cost of living pressures. The carbon tax will only increase these pressures, particularly in those regions that can least afford it. Figures already show that the carbon tax is going to go up and up. This tax is going to increase. It is a new, $9 billion a year tax that will cause a 10 per cent hike in electricity bills in the first year alone. I am being conservative—very realistic—about the figures; I know that there are other figures quoting between 18 per cent and 20 per cent for some of the other jurisdictions. There will be a $3.4 billion hit on the budget bottom line and a nine per cent hike in gas bills in the first year alone. Our forgotten families are already struggling; a carbon tax is going to make a bad situation worse. Households around the country will be paying $515 on average, against $642 that we Territorians will pay because of our remoteness. It will be a trillion-dollar cost to the economy over coming decades that will send hundreds of billions of dollars of Australian business overseas. There will be $3.5 billion spent each year on foreign carbon credits by 2020, which will rise to $57 billion by 2050. Senator Faulkner and some on this side have talked about 50 years being a long way off. These sorts of figures, where we will be making a contribution for foreign carbon credits to the tune of $57 billion, to anybody with any sense seem almost sublime. Perhaps 2050 is not really in our context, but $3.5 billion each year on credits by 2020 is in our context and is a considerable amount of funds. A lot of Australians are having great difficulty understanding why that is an investment, not a cost. On those sorts of figures, we will see every Australian slugged about $40,000 over the coming decades. To many people that is the equivalent of a year's work for Labor's broken promises.

The 2012-13 budget confirmed the government is forecasting the carbon tax to rise from $23 a tonne to $29 a tonne by 2015. A lot of people would really like to understand what the impact of that will be. Sadly, the government is running an advertising campaign that does not appear to be informing people. Many people are disturbed about what the full impact will be on them personally. There is $36 million for an advertising campaign that will start in 2012-13. They are spending a total of $70 million of taxpayers' money on carbon tax advertising, and that includes last year's campaign. So when the Prime Minister tells the ACTU conference, 'Nobody has anything to fear from carbon pricing,' I think we all find it difficult to understand why she does not appear to have the courage to include the term 'carbon price' in the advertisements.

Quite clearly the circumstances of people who are just trying to eke a living in regional and rural Australia are difficult enough, but this is a toxic tax on remoteness. Certainly all of the constituents that I speak to are sick and tired of being told by this government that this is all about leadership: 'We're here to change the climate. We're here to change the environment.' They made a rock solid promise. I do not believe that the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was lying at the time. That is my personal view. But circumstances that arose later meant that she had to do a deal. She went and did that deal, which made it a lie. I think people are sick and tired of being told that this is a good idea. Labor are out there beating their chests saying the world is going to be a better place because of the introduction of this tax. If the polls are not telling those opposite, they should listen to their constituents. I speak to quite a wide diaspora of individuals and I certainly do not have many who would tell me that this is a good idea today, for the future, for those people living in the cities, for the global environment or, most importantly, for our national interest.