John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Acting Deputy President, I would like to add to Senator Furner's comments about the member for New England. No doubt some discussions were had in confidence just after the last election, in that 17-day period, and isn't it wonderful that here is Mr Windsor now putting it all out in the open when he says Mr Abbott would have gone with a carbon tax. I can tell you that is absolute rot. If Mr Abbott was Prime Minister in a hung parliament, how would he ever get it through the parliament? I know The Nationals would not have voted for it. I know that virtually all of my colleagues in the Liberal Party would not have voted for it. Mr Windsor is not telling the truth, just like prior to the last election. Kelly Fuller was interviewing him on Tamworth radio, after Mr Windsor had put a bill into the House of Representatives wanting a 20 per cent reduction on emissions of 1990 levels by 2020 and a massive 80 per cent by 2050. Mr Windsor said: 'That wasn't my bill. No, I just put that in on behalf of some of my constituents.' It was his bill all right, and that is why he drove the carbon tax. That is why he proudly put a media release out saying, 'One of the conditions to support the Gillard government is that we form a multi-party climate change committee.'

What is the idea of a carbon tax? It is to increase the cost of electricity so that people use less. That is the whole idea of it. And now we have got the cost going around and small business—go to your local engineer, someone out in a little country town knocking up machinery, augers, field bins, groupers for the agriculture or mining industry and ask them what effect it is going to have on their industry because electricity prices go up. They are going to have to charge more. So when they build something for, say, a farmer, then what does the farmer do? The farmer pays more. But tell me this: who does the farmer hand the costs on to? Can he go to the cattle yard and say, 'I demand you pay 5c extra for this steer because I've got to pay a carbon tax'? No, they are price takers, not price makers. The primary producers are price takers; they cannot pass it on.

We have raised this issue about the cost on small business. We have this crazy situation of adding another 6.75c a litre diesel tax to our truckies on 1 July 2014 and people on the other side say, 'Just pass it on.' For Martin Group transport, based up there at Scone in the Hunter Valley, it is going to cost them an extra $1 million a year for their fuel. That is the increase in fuel tax alone—$1 million. So they pass it on to the cow cocky, to the farmer. I ask the question again: who does the farmer pass it on to? They cannot pass it on; they just suffer. So what happens then? They have less money, less profit, less to spend in the country towns at those small businesses that rely on that agricultural money going through their communities, keeping those businesses strong, keeping the jobs in place—they cannot pass it on. But those on the other side will never learn that.

When you look at the 31 Labor senators in this chamber, I think it is either 25 or 26 come from the union movement. Have they ever run a small business? The odd one might have run a small business now and then, but they are out there representing the so-called workers.