SIMON BIRMINGHAM: What we have today is new data from the [Australian] Trade and Industry Alliance that demonstrates that nine out of ten Australian jobs in manufacturing are in industries that will receive no compensation under the carbon tax. Every Australian job in the services sector is in an industry, in a business that will receive no compensation under the carbon tax. There will, of course, be overwhelmingly the vast majority of Australian jobs will receive no protection or compensation from the carbon tax.
We know that electricity prices will rise by around 10 per cent. We know, even under the drip-fed information that Wayne Swan and Treasury have released, that water, gas and electricity together will all go up by 8 per cent. Every Australian business faces these costs and those costs are real pressures on Australian jobs. The Government needs to acknowledge this, acknowledge that its modelling approach, that assumes the rest of the world is taking complementary action, is just wrong and it should model on the basis of real data, real facts that show the world is not taking complementary action, that show Australia is getting ahead of the rest of the pack, and give us the opportunity as this country to have sensible climate change policy that balances our economic interests alongside our environmental interests.
To all Australians, can I say that there are just three more days for you to have your say on the 1100 pages that are contained in the 19 carbon tax bills in this Parliament three more days in this shotgun inquiry for people to get their submissions in so, please, if you’re passionate about this topic, if you want to have your voice heard, you want to comment on the legislation, lodge a submission with the Parliamentary inquiry into it. It is a rushed approach, it’s a shotgun inquiry, but this is the one and only opportunity it looks like Australians will get to have their say.
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