Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Ronaldson today relating to the carbon tax.

I refer to Senator Wong's comments regarding the Alcoa bailout at Point Henry aluminium smelter. I particularly want to take note of the fact that the minister, despite repeated requests, refused to acknowledge that the carbon tax impact on that Point Henry smelter was going to be $40-odd million. She then refused to acknowledge that the amount of the carbon tax just remarkably happened to be the equivalent of the bailout amount. This further establishes that this bailout was using borrowed money to cover up a bad tax that is based on a lie. The fact that the minister would not acknowledge the remarkable coincidence about the bailout figure and the carbon tax figure just shows again that the Labor Party stands utterly condemned in relation to this lie that was delivered five days before the last election.

The Labor Party can talk as much as they like about the world not changing on 1 July but the Australian people know full well that a carbon tax that has no equivalent in the world is going to dramatically damage this country and damage this economy. As I asked the minister during my question, what is she going to do for those businesses and industries throughout Australia which are now facing complete and utter destruction, in relation to a bailout for them? Was it because Geelong happens to be a marginal seat that drove this?