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

 

 

It’s terrific to be here in Launceston, great to be here at the Tamar Valley Dairy. I want to thank Archie Matteo and his team for making Andrew Nikolic and me so welcome. Andrew is an absolutely outstanding candidate for Bass. I think he’s going to make a great local member. The only person that the people of Bass can vote for who is against the carbon tax is Andrew Nikolic and I want him to bring to the national parliament the same dedication, the same professionalism and the same patriotism that he showed in a very long and distinguished career in the Australian armed forces.

 

Now, this business, Tamar Valley Dairy, it’s a national business now. It’s a bit of a household name particularly in my part of Sydney where these yoghurt products are regarded as a marvellous delicacy, but it’s harder and harder to do business in Tasmania and nationally because of Labor-Green government, Labor-Green government which is essentially hostile to doing business in this state and in this country. The carbon tax is going to be a triple whammy for a business like this. It hits the power costs, it hits the refrigerant costs. After 2014 it will hit transport costs. It’s already hitting the transport costs of getting stuff across the Bass Strait from this business. The carbon tax is bad news for families, it’s bad news for jobs, it’s bad news for business and that’s why it has to go.

 

This is a government which is just constantly getting it wrong when it comes to managing the issues facing Australia and while I’m on that subject, this is a government which has comprehensively mismanaged our border protection. We see the flow of boats steadily becoming a flood. We’ve had the East Timor solution, we’ve had the Malaysia solution, now we’ve got the ostrich solution: a government which has just buried its head in the sand while the boats just keep coming and coming and coming. Wayne Swan this week is the acting Prime Minister. I say to the Acting Prime Minister, if he’s serious about burnishing  his leadership credentials, he should do what Julia Gillard has consistently failed to do: pick up the phone to the President of Nauru and actually get something done.

 

As I keep saying to the Australian people, there is a better way. The Coalition stands ready to deliver a better way. Our policies will deliver lower taxes, better services, stronger borders and modern infrastructure and here in Tasmania our commitment is to spend $400 million to duplicate the Midland Highway between Launceston and Hobart. It’s a very important commitment. It will make a difference to the people of Tasmania. That’s what I am determined to do. That’s what Andrew Nikolic is determined to do. Andrew?

 

Thanks Tony. I’ve been a full time candidate in Bass for some 13 months now and I’m energised to see my leader visit so frequently and show such an intense interest in our interests and aspirations in northern Tasmania. In the five visits Tony has done so far since last July, we’ve gone to Scottsdale and done public forums, we’ve done public forums here in Launceston, we’ve stood at Agfest, we’ve been down to some of our small businesses and heard about the impact of a carbon tax on their business and I’m energised to have our leader here so frequently and so interested in our interests and aspirations.

 

As far as the carbon tax goes, in the last week I’ve had a fairly prominent survey in northern Tasmania which highlights what an issue it is for the people of our community and when you look at the impact of a carbon tax, for example on our hospital beds, we’ve had four state premiers highlight that the cost per bed, per year of the carbon tax is somewhere in the vicinity of $1,000 to $2,400 per bed, per year. Yet here in Tasmania, the state Labor-Greens government refuses to issue the analysis on the impact of the carbon tax on our hospitals which, as we know in recent times, are in a crisis situation.

 

If we look at hydro power in Tasmania, which is carbon-free, I’ve had people tell me in these surveys, ‘why are we paying, why are we, households and businesses, paying the carbon tax when most of our power is carbon-free?’ Tourism – we’ve seen announcements in the recent past, the airlines increasing costs at six dollars per flight. We’ve seen the Spirit of Tasmania increasing the costs and every family coming to this state being hit, and as a small island state so reliant on tourism, it’s a hit that we can very well do without.

 

Perhaps one of the communities that is most disproportionately hit by this carbon tax is our remote island communities, the ones that are suffering from everything coming on and off the island either by air or by ferry are certainly going to be hit hard by this carbon tax and a number of these surveys and conversations that I’m having reveal to me every day how hard that’s going to be for our remote island communities. So can I just say how pleased I am to have my leader here again, engaging in a conversation with the people of northern Tasmania about the things that are most important to them for their future.

 

Thanks Tony.

 

 

Thanks Andrew.

 

Ok. Do we have any questions?

 

 

Mr Abbott, isn’t this an example of a thriving dairy industry and an area of growth? Another example would be Fonterra investing $6 million in their Tasmanian plants.

 

 

And these businesses don’t deserve to be whacked with a carbon tax. As I said, this is a triple whammy for Tamar Valley Diary. It’s a hit on its power costs of about half a million dollars a year, so that’s $50,000 extra that they’ll have to pay just like that, that they don’t need. It’s a hit on their refrigerant costs. Refrigerant gases are going up almost five times under the carbon tax and every supermarket, every refrigerated manufacturer and processer is going to be hit that way. It’s already a hit on transport costs for Tasmania because of its dependency on the ferry service to the mainland, on air services to the mainland but come 2014, if this government survives, there’s a big hit on all heavy transport. This is a government which is making the competitive pressures that these businesses face far, far worse and every day that the carbon tax lasts, it will just get worse because this tax is designed to go up and up and up.

 

 

The latest opinion poll though shows that most people don’t think they’ll be worse off under the carbon tax. Is it really as bad as you say?

 

 

Just wait until people get their winter power bills. But it’s clearer and clearer that the carbon tax is the wrong way to go. I’ve just come back from China and the United States. They are very concerned about their economic future and the last thing they want to do is damage their competitiveness, score an economic own goal, without doing any good for the environment by hitting their people with a carbon tax.

 

 

Can I ask about the latest revelations about James Ashby. What do you think they mean for his credibility in making allegations against Peter Slipper?

 

 

It’s a matter for the police.

 

 

You don’t have an opinion on that?

 

 

Look, it’s a matter for the police. If there’s anything in these allegations, the police will investigate and they’ll take appropriate action.

 

 

Mr Nikolic, you were talking about transport costs and tourism being an important industry for Tasmania. Do you think under the carbon tax, we’ve just had announced there’s more flights from QantasLink and Jetstar coming into Launceston and Hobart. Are we going to be able to fill those seats if tickets are going to be costing more under the carbon tax?

 

 

Well look, it’s a good question. I had Bob Baldwin here in March and we ran a tourism roundtable which really highlighted the situation for tourism in Tasmania which is a declining number of people visiting at a time when the state Labor government is cutting its marketing budget. So anything that increases the costs, acts as a disincentive for people visiting our island state, is a bad thing. So whilst we welcome the announcement of additional flights, of course, to Tasmania, the fact that the costs of those flights are going up, the fact that the costs for a family to come to Tasmania on the Spirit of Tasmania are going up as a result of the carbon tax, is not a good thing for tourism in our state.

 

 

Mr Abbott, in New South Wales Barry O’Farrell has invited the Chinese to invest in billions of dollars of infrastructure. Do you have any concerns about that?

 

 

Look, I welcome foreign investment. The Coalition has always welcomed foreign investment. It’s important that it be in the national interest and that’s why we have a Foreign Investment Review Board process and, as I think everyone now knows, the Coalition will shortly be releasing a paper on how we can make that process better, more transparent, how we can show the public that the foreign investment we have is something that should be welcomed.

 

Do you think there are any areas that should be off limits, like power generation or ports?

 

This is essentially a matter for the Foreign Investment Review Board and they do a good job.

 

What about egg processors [inaudible]?

 

 

Well, again it’s essentially a matter for the Foreign Investment Review Board but one of things that our paper will be dealing with is investment in agribusiness.

 

 

Craig Emerson is accusing the Coalition of leaking from confidential meetings between Australia and the US in Washington. What’s your response to that?

 

 

There were a number of Labor members of parliament present at the meeting in question and I think that Craig Emerson is just embarrassed at the fact that so many Labor members of Parliament are despairing of their prospects under this particular Prime Minister and I can understand their dismay because this is a Prime Minister who has fundamentally broken faith with the Australian public. This is a Prime Minister who said six days before the last election, to win votes, there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead. Then just a few days later, to stay in office, she did a squalid deal with the Greens. Now, a Labor-Green government has been bad for Tasmania. A Labor-Green government is bad for Australia. If the Australian people want hope, reward and opportunity, if they want lower taxes, better services, stronger borders and modern infrastructure, the government has got to change and that’s what I am offering the Australian people.

 

Thank you.

 

[ends]