EO&E..............................................................................................................................................................

 

 

Look, it’s terrific to be here with Bruce Billson at the Melbourne seafood markets. This is a new building, it’s a $35 million investment. It's a sign of confidence in the industry by the people here at this market, but just after they have invested in this new market, they are being hit by the carbon tax. Seafood as we know is an essential part of a healthy diet, but there is nothing healthy about the carbon tax. This carbon tax is going to hit the seafood industry at every level. It is going to hit the diesel that the trawlers use, it’s going to hit the power that the shops and the people here at this market use, it is going to radically increase the expenses of refrigeration and it’s just going to get worse and worse and worse as the carbon tax goes up and up and up, and it’s going to get particularly bad should this Government be returned at the next election, when the carbon tax hits transport as well as off road diesel such as the diesel that trawlers use.

 

Now, another day of the carbon tax has gone by and still, this Prime Minister refuses to visit any one of the businesses that are impacted by the carbon tax. I challenge this Prime Minister: stop hiding from business, front up to a business and explain why it is that you are making it harder for Australian businesses to compete, explain why it is that you are hitting Australian businesses with what amounts to a reverse tariff that makes our jobs less secure, makes our businesses less competitive compared to foreign jobs and foreign businesses. This is a very serious challenge to our Prime Minister. You have got to front up and explain yourself to business. So far, what this Prime Minister is doing is hiding from business. Well, she might be able to hide from business but she can't hide from voters. I’m going to ask the Shadow Minister for Small Business, Bruce Billson, to say a few words and then I'll take a few questions.

 

 

Thanks Tony, it’s great to be here seeing the seafood industry in action. Australia's seafood industry is the most sustainable and well managed in the world. We want Australians to eat Australian seafood. But when they are faced with more expensive seafood than it needs to be, up against international competition where the international competition is not paying the carbon tax, yet our Australian seafood industry is laden with this carbon tax, that is making our seafood industry put in a disadvantaged situation, when Australians really want sustainable affordable high quality seafood in Australia. The carbon tax has got to go. Australian small businesses are feeling it the most and the Prime Minister should acquaint herself with the simple facts that this tax has to go and it's making a difficult economic system and situation for small business even harder.

 

 

Ok, do we have any questions?

 

Have you heard of any figures from people here this morning about how much they might be out of pocket?

 

 

Well they’re calculating the figures at the moment, but certainly what we have got are a whole lot of very, very disturbing figures from the refrigeration industry about refrigerant costs going up in some cases by four and five hundred per cent. So they are the figures which I think are most shocking people at these fish markets this morning.

 

Is that from the refrigeration gas tax that’s coming?

 

 

No, no, this is the impact of the carbon tax. It's the specific impact of the carbon tax on refrigeration gases.

 

There’s been some criticisms that the Coalition is exaggerating the impact of the carbon tax in terms of grocery prices, there’s not that much of an impact in terms of effect on funeral homes, which was seen to be a false report. Are you exaggerating?

 

 

The truth is that this carbon tax will impact on every price in our economy – every single business. Every single price embeds the cost of power and eventually transport and that's what the carbon tax is designed to do; put up the price of power and transport. And you know the thing about the carbon tax is that it just goes up and up and up. At the moment it is $23 a tonne, the Government's own forecasts say it will be $37 a tonne by 2020 and an unbelievable $350 a tonne by 2050 and these are the figures in the Government's own forecasts.

 

 

Are there other taxes though just like the refrigeration gas tax that happen to be coming in around the same time?

 

 

No, there is a specific carbon tax impact on refrigeration gases which is putting up the price four and five hundred per cent in some cases.

 

 

The Navy’s been a little bit critical of your asylum seeker boat plan. What’s your response to their criticism?

 

 

Look, I respect the professionalism of the Navy. I appreciate that Naval personnel have a difficult job to do, often under highly distressing circumstances. But the fact is the Navy has turned boats around before, it's done it with great professionalism and it can do so again with the right support from Government and that's what I'd be giving them.

 

 

You’ve said before that you’re willing to meet an expert panel on the issue, but you won’t compromise on the Coalition’s stance. There’s been a lot of criticism that there’s a political deadlock on this issue. Both sides have been intransigent. How do you respond to those criticisms?

 

 

There has been no failure of Opposition policy here. There has been a failure of Government policy. The Opposition's position has been absolutely crystal clear for a decade now. The Coalition's position has been absolutely crystal clear for a decade now. We believe in rigorous offshore processing at Nauru, temporary protection visas to deny the people smugglers a product to sell, and the option of turning boats around where it is safe to do so. Now these are the policies that worked in the past, they can work again in the future, and the only thing that is stopping this Government from putting them into practice is the pride and stubbornness of the current Prime Minister.

 

 

Would it be a problem if you were in Government and the defence forces were in disagreement with you about the way to tackle the asylum seeker boats?

 

 

The government respects the integrity and the operational capacity of our defence forces, and the fundamental point I make is that we have done it before, we can do it again.

 

 

You’ve said that Labor’s hypocritical to attack the Greens in recent days. Can you explain that?

 

 

Every single Labor Member of Parliament and every single member of the faceless men class of the Labor Party who is coming out now and attacking the Greens is effectively attacking the Prime Minister.

 

You can't attack the deal with the Greens without implicitly attacking the person who did the deal. So what we're really seeing now is a civil war inside the Labor Party and the point I make to the Australian people is that the problem here is not the Greens, the problem here is the Labor Party. Labor's problem is not the Greens, Labor's problem is Labor. The difficulty is that this is a Labor Party that no longer knows what it stands for, it no longer knows what it believes, it no longer knows who it represents. This is a Government led by a Labor Prime Minister which is effectively implementing Greens policies, whether it be the carbon tax, whether it be the complete collapse of border protection, or whether – of particular interest to the fishing industry – these marine protected areas. Essentially everything this Government does is being driven by the Greens.

 

 

[inaudible] marine protected areas, was that brought up with you here this morning by the fishing industry?

 

 

Look, it very much was, and the Coalition certainly supports sustainable fisheries, but that's exactly what we've got here in Australia. Australia's fisheries are the best managed fisheries in the world. The Australian fishing industry is the most environmentally responsible fishing industry in the world. The last thing that the fishermen of Australia want to do is to destroy the environment that provides them with a living and I think that one of the real problems with the current Labor/Green Government is that wherever it looks it sees environmental vandals and yet the fishermen, the farmers, the foresters of Australia are our true conservationists. They are the people who want to protect the environment that they depend upon, the environment that they want to provide a living to them, their children and their grandchildren.

Thank you.

 

[ends]