Australians woke up today to three major changes that will hit households, businesses and the economy very hard.

 

The commencement of the carbon tax, changes to the private health insurance rebate and the start of the mining tax all mark today as a day of betrayal by Labor.

 

The carbon tax will damage the economy; the change to the private health insurance rebate will damage our health system; and the mining tax will harm future investment in our country.

 

The worst of these hits is the carbon tax. 

 

The carbon tax will be an immediate hit on the household budgets of all Australians.

 

It will play havoc with household budgets as food, electricity, gas and the price of essentials all go up.

 

The impact of this tax will worsen over time – as the carbon tax is legislated to go up and up.

 

It will drive high electricity prices up even further with no relief in sight.

 

Charities, councils, schools, hospitals, small businesses, community groups, public transport operators, will be among the hardest hit.  They will all carry the increased costs of this tax.

 

The carbon tax will harm the competitive position of Australia by increasing the cost of exports and acting as a reverse tariff.  It will cost jobs and investment, at the worst possible time.

 

Some businesses will cling to temporary ‘carbon tax bailouts’ and ‘temporary exemptions’, but these will pass.  For most businesses, the carbon tax will be an immediate burden that will benefit overseas competitors and imported goods, and make it even more difficult for Australian businesses to compete in the world.

 

By the government’s own figures the carbon tax will reduce Australia’s GDP by a cumulative total of one trillion dollars by 2050.  That’s like shutting down the country for a year.

 

For all the economic carnage, the carbon tax won’t help the environment with Australia’s domestic emissions expected to rise eight per cent by 2020.

 

The longer the carbon tax is in place, the worse the impacts will be on families and the economy.  That’s why, if elected, I will move quickly to implement the Coalition’s Plan to Abolish the Carbon Tax.  It is a plan that starts with action on the first day and sees legislation abolishing the carbon tax introduced into Parliament on the very first sitting day after the election.

 

Abolishing the carbon tax is at the heart of the Coalition’s plan to get Australia back on track.

 

Unlike the Prime Minister, I mean what I say: there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.

 

 

1 July 2012