Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, we went to the last election with a very clear proposition that we would scrap the carbon tax, because it would help families and business. It would help bring down the cost of electricity, it would help bring down the cost of gas, it would help bring down the cost of living, it would help bring down the cost of doing business and it would help create more jobs. What we also said in the lead-up to the last election is that we would do what is necessary to ensure that any cost reductions as a result of scrapping the carbon tax, when it comes to generating energy, would be appropriately passed through to families, to pensioners, to business—users of electricity.

The implication of Senator Singh's question is that Labor does not want us to take the necessary steps to ensure that the savings from scrapping the carbon tax are passed on to families, to pensioners and to business. On this side of the chamber we are very clear that we do want those savings to be passed through. Labor is suggesting, and now the Greens are suggesting, that households and businesses should not be able to benefit from the savings that come with scrapping the Labor-Green tax.