Labor, Greens and regional Independents pass Carbon Tax
12-October-2011
All 19 Bills of the Carbon Tax Legislation were passed through the House of Representatives this morning. Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton said he was extremely disappointed with the results of the vote stating that the Government, in alliance with the Greens and Independent Members, has ignored the concerns of people in the Parkes Electorate and people right across Australia.
“I am very disappointed with the way the vote went today,” Mr Coulton said. “The Labor-Green-Independent Government has now enforced the world’s most punitive carbon tax on the Australian people – a country that only contributes 1.5% of global emissions. It seems democracy in our great country is dead.”
“Every Australian now faces the prospect of even higher household bills, while many will also have to live with uncertainty over the security of their jobs. The Government has shown they are prepared to sacrifice the welfare of our lowest income earners—our fixed income earners, our elderly, our small business community and our farmers—to make a grand gesture to the rest of the world.”
“There is no evidence that this carbon tax will have any measurable effects on our climate. Indeed, the Government’s Climate Change salesman, Professor Tim Flannery, admitted that it might take one thousand years before we see any difference, and that’s if the entire world follows Australia.”
“I have serious concern at the Government’s haste to implement a carbon tax before most of the world and all of our export competitor,” Mr Coulton stated. “Australia is already taking stronger climate action than many competitor nations; to unilaterally add a carbon tax on top of that will only disadvantage our exporters, send jobs overseas, and potentially drive up global emissions in sectors such as steel and metal smelting. Putting a price on carbon in Australia when no competitor is imposing an economy-wide tax will damage our country, particularly the regions.”
Mr Coulton directed the blame to the regional Independent’s who sided with Labor and the Greens to introduce this tax.
“The carbon tax legislation passed because Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor sided with Labor over their electorates. They failed to gain a mandate from their electorates to vote in favour of a carbon tax. In fact a recent survey conducted in their electorates showed that 87% of people in Lyne and 89% of people in New England oppose the implementation of a carbon tax.”
The Bills will now be voted on in the Senate in November and will be implemented from July 1 2012.
“This is a bad day for Australia. The Carbon Tax will dramatically increase the cost of living, destroy jobs in regional Australia and do absolutely nothing to decrease the level of global carbon emissions.”
“For this reason my colleagues and I oppose it and will repeal it in Government.”