I introduce the Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013.
The Australian people have already voted upon this Bill.
Now, the Parliament gets its chance.
Madam Speaker, the election was a referendum on the Carbon Tax.
The people have spoken.
Now, it’s up to this Parliament to show that it’s listened.
The Australian people have pronounced their judgment against the Carbon Tax: they want it gone and this bill delivers.
It delivers on the Coalition’s commitment to the Australian people to scrap this toxic tax.
It is also, Madam Speaker, a cornerstone of the Government’s plan for a stronger economy built on lower taxes, less regulation and stronger businesses.
Madam Speaker, repealing the carbon tax should be the first economic reform of this Parliament and it will be followed by further economic reforms: bills to repeal the mining tax, to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission and to deal with Labor’s debt legacy.
Madam Speaker, the first impact of this bill will be on households whose overall costs will fall $550 a year on average.
Thanks to this bill, household electricity bills will be $200 lower next financial year without the Carbon Tax.
Household gas bills will be $70 lower next financial year without the Carbon Tax.
Prices for groceries, for household items and for services will also fall because the price of power is embedded in every price in our economy.
This is our bill to reduce your bills, to reduce the bills of the people of Australia.
When the price of power comes down, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be ready to ensure these price reductions are passed on to households and businesses.
But families and pensioners will keep the tax cuts and benefit increases already provided.
The Carbon Tax will go, but the carbon tax compensation will stay so that every Australian should be better off.
Repealing the Carbon Tax will reduce costs for all Australian businesses, every single one of them.
Madam Speaker the previous Government said and argued that only big business paid the Carbon Tax.
That simply wasn’t true. Every small business paid the Carbon Tax through higher electricity and gas bills and higher costs for supplies.
As well, Madam Speaker, the Carbon Tax acts as a reverse tariff.
Not only does the Carbon Tax make it more difficult for Australian businesses to compete abroad, it makes it more difficult for domestic businesses to compete at home – because there is no Carbon Tax on imports.
Madam Speaker, repealing the Carbon Tax removes over 1,000 pages of primary and subordinate legislation.
Repealing the Carbon Tax cuts the size of the climate change bureaucracy.
So, repealing the Carbon Tax will reduce the cost of living, make jobs more secure and improve the competitive position of our country.
That’s what it does: it reduces the cost of living, it makes jobs more secure and improves the competitive position of our country.
Why would anyone be against that, particularly when it’s what the Australian people have just voted for?
Madam Speaker, repealing the Carbon Tax is what the employers and what the jobs providers of our country want now.
The Business Council of Australia “supports the wind-up of the current carbon pricing mechanism because it places excessive costs on business and households and because (our) carbon charge…is now one of the highest in the world”.
The carbon tax has ripped through the economy, hitting schools, hospitals, nursing homes, charities, churches, council swimming pools and community centres.
It has hit each and every group and each and every individual that uses power – and that was always its goal: to make electricity more expensive.
That was the intention of the previous government, to put power prices up because that was their way of reducing carbon emissions.
The intention of the new government is to put power prices down by axing this toxic tax and by using other means to reduce emissions.
By reducing the cost of electricity and gas, we will help to make households better off, workers more secure and our economy stronger.
No one should be in any doubt – the Government is repealing the Carbon Tax in full.
We are not playing word games.
We are not playing tactical political games.
We are doing what we were elected to do.
Others have said they would terminate the Carbon Tax, but they were only renaming it.
Well, Madam Speaker, we are not renaming it.
We are not floating it.
We are not keeping the machinery in place so we can dust it off in the future.
We are abolishing the Carbon Tax in full.
We have said what we mean and we will do what we say – the Carbon Tax goes. It goes.
Madam Speaker, repealing the Carbon Tax at the end of the financial year provides certainty for business and it simplifies the transition.
It means that this Government will not be proceeding with the previous Government’s legislated Carbon Tax increase that would have taken effect from the 1st of July next year.
As well, Labor’s Carbon Tax changes for the on-road fuel costs of heavy vehicles that were going to commence on the 1st of July 2014 will not happen.
That saves consumers the previous Government’s planned increase in the price of everything that had to be trucked around the country.
Madam Speaker, unfortunately, the new Government cannot undo the past, we can only make the future better – and that is what we intend to do.
Madam Speaker, under this Government, the Carbon Tax will not apply from 1 July so there will be no need for further compensation packages.
We will end the merry-go-round of Carbon Tax industry assistance that takes from one pocket and puts less back in the other.
Madam Speaker, we will ensure that the benefits of repealing the Carbon Tax are passed on to consumers.
The ACCC will have further powers to take action against any business that engages in price exploitation in relation to the Carbon Tax repeal.
Penalties of up to $1.1 million for corporations and $220,000 for individuals will apply.
Madam Speaker, the Government is repealing the Carbon Tax because there is a less complicated and less costly way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – a way that will actually reduce emissions and won’t damage the economy.
The Government will scrap the Carbon Tax and then proceed with its Direct Action Plan.
The centrepiece of the Direct Action Plan will be the Emissions Reduction Fund – a market-based mechanism for reducing carbon dioxide emissions; a Fund which provides a powerful and direct additional incentive for businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The Fund will use positive incentives to reduce Australia’s emissions.
Direct Action through the Fund means more trees, better soils and smarter technology and this is the right way to get emissions down.
Madam Speaker, the Carbon Tax is a $9 billion hit on the economy this year alone.
It is a $9 billion burden on jobs, a $9 billion burden on investment and a $9 billion burden on Australia that we just don’t need.
So, Madam Speaker, this bill gets rid of it.
This bill is the Government’s Bill to reduce people’s bills and I so commend this bill to the House.
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