Bill Shorten has announced a massive new electricity tax – but he didn’t have the courage or the honesty to tell Australian families how much it will cost them.
Mark Butler and Bill Shorten are kidding themselves. Australians are too smart to fall for Labor’s tricks.
We’ve all been through Labor’s carbon tax experiment before. We all know what it involves.
The only way Labor’s new carbon tax is different is that it will be even more painful for Australian families and business.
We know this because Labor commissioned the modelling while they were in Government – and the findings are shocking.
Labor’s modelling of Labor’s policy when Labor was in Government showed that to achieve a similar target, wholesale electricity prices would need to be 78% higher in 2030. This would drive up electricity costs for Australian families, pensioners and businesses.
Labor’s own modelling also showed Australian income per person would be a whopping $4,900 lower than it would be without Labor’s new carbon tax in 2030.
It would have a devastating impact on the Australian economy, jobs, incomes and we would see power prices skyrocket.
When asked on 3AW this morning, on at least eight occasions Mark Butler refused to say that the cost of living wouldn’t rise under Labor’s carbon tax.
That’s because he knows the truth! We’ve seen it all before.
Bill Shorten and Mark Butler are also kidding themselves when they say an Emissions Trading Scheme isn’t a carbon tax.
At least Julia Gillard and Joel Fitzgibbon were honest when they said it’s the same thing.
It doesn't matter what Labor calls it – a price on carbon through a carbon tax or an Emissions Trading Scheme – will jack up power prices for families, pensioners and businesses.
Unlike Labor, the Turnbull Government is tackling climate change without pushing up electricity prices for Australian families.
Just last week, Australia signed the Paris Agreement in New York. We will begin our process to ratify the Agreement immediately, and will seek to ratify this year.
We have a policy that’s working. Through our Emissions Reduction Fund 92.8 million tonnes of emissions reduction has been contracted at less than 1 per cent of the cost of Labor’s carbon tax.
The latest national figures are show that we are on track to beat our 2020 target by 78 million tonnes.
And we achieved this whilst delivering the largest drop in electricity prices on record.
Bill Shorten and Mark Butler are kidding themselves if they think Australia needs a carbon tax.
We don’t need it, and Australians made it very clear at the last election that they don’t want it.
Labor should reveal their modelling so we all know how much electricity prices will rise.
(ENDS)