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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-07-27 Daily Xml
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CARBON TAX

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:17): I think this will be one of many grieves and much debate in this place about the federal government's carbon tax. The carbon tax is obviously very closely supported by the Rann government. I grieve today because it is going to have very much a disproportionate effect on regional areas in South Australia, particularly in Chaffey, which relies on agriculture, horticulture and, essentially, is all about food production.

Agriculture, supposedly exempt from this tax, will be substantially impacted because all forms of farming are export driven and, therefore, will be competing against other countries that will not be participating in introducing taxes like this current carbon tax, particularly in relation to fuel costs. I think fuel costs will have the biggest impact on food production.

It is about the carbon tax versus the food security in this country, not just in South Australia but all of Australia. Fuel costs will have a significant impact because fuel is in every element of food production, whether it is getting the fertiliser, the power to pump the water, the tractors and machinery that plant, harvest and spray; it will have a huge impact.

It will not just have an impact on the farmers, consumers will bear the burden as well. Consumers will only bear some of that burden and it will get to the point, when they are sick of paying exorbitant prices for their food, where they are going to look at alternative food, and that will be cheap unregulated imports from other countries. Those other countries that are not putting in inputs would particularly be with fertiliser, chemicals, machinery—particularly with machinery and the production of machinery that is there to underpin the planting and harvesting of food. Virtually all that is produced on farms is transported in one form or another.

Electricity is a major expense for irrigators. Power costs have almost doubled over the last three years and electricity prices are already 10 per cent higher in the country than what they are in Adelaide. Additional rises will further add to irrigated food production costs and I think that it is incomprehensible that the federal government can come out and say that agriculture will be exempt when the major inputs to agriculture are fuel and electricity.

What I would like to ask everyone here today is: will farmers and irrigators be compensated and how will regional and farming communities be compensated for this burdening tax that we here in Australia are looking like adopting, that many other countries are not, that many other competing exporting countries will not adopt?

If we look at the polls today, and if we look at the polls every day, we can see they are heading south, into uncharted territory. This federal Labor government needs to ask itself: what are we really achieving with this tax? Again, I am not a climate-change denier, but it is a global phenomenon, not just a local one.

Assuming that substantial reductions in global emissions will make a difference, how will a small reduction in Australia's emissions, around 1 per cent of the global emissions, make a difference at all? How will we compete on a world stage, as we have been doing for many years? How will we compete on an export-driven commodity, such as agriculture and horticulture?

This is not an incentive to change behaviour: it is an incentive for business and Australian jobs to go overseas. We are essentially exporting our jobs. We are essentially exporting pollution overseas at a cost to our food security and our food production in this country. By how much are our emissions really being reduced and how much are they really going to be offset by the international carbon credits? As we tax food production out of existence in Australia, we will watch it grow in countries that are not being a part of this carbon offset.

Dishonesty: this Labor Prime Minister has said, 'No carbon tax under a government I lead.' So, I ask: who will be the next prime minister and how long will it take for them to stand up?

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