Crikey continues to receive Coalition talking points sent from Tony Abbott’s office to all MPs each day. Here is today’s edition …

Labor’s mocking of community anger across Australia at its carbon tax lie won’t change the reality that this is a jobs-destroying, economy wide tax

Coalition message:

The Coalition will restore hope, reward and opportunity for all Australians
The Gillard Government is weak and incompetent, divided and dysfunctional

Today’s message:

Labor’s mocking of community anger across Australia at its carbon tax lie won’t change the reality that this is a jobs-destroying, economy wide tax.

Issues that the Leadership Team will focus on:

Labor is deaf to carbon tax concern:

  • Labor remains deaf to growing concern about the impact of its carbon tax
  • The best Greg Combet can do in response to New Zealand putting the brakes on emissions trading is to argue the “effective” starting price in Australia is $1.30 not $23 — the fact is, it’s $23
  • The best Greg Combet can do in response to Craig Emerson’s song and dance is to say the Government “should take carbon tax concerns seriously”
  • Meanwhile Joel Fitzgibbon argues Labor must tear up its alliance with The Greens over a range of issues
  • Labor’s mocking of community anger across Australia at its carbon tax lie won’t change the reality that this is a jobs-destroying, economy wide tax
  • This wishy washy response won’t change the reality that while Munmorah power station in NSW was due to close in two years time, that closure has been brought forward because of the carbon tax and jobs will go
  • With Labor, don’t listen to the spin, look at the facts. Its carbon tax damage is underway

…while New Zealand applies the brakes:

  • NZ Prime Minister John Key and his government have decided to indefinitely postpone key stages of their Emissions Trading Scheme, because consumers and business can not currently afford the impacts of it — they have put the brakes on due to job losses
  • “We’re not prepared to sacrifice jobs in a weak international environment when other countries are moving very slowly”, Prime Minister Key said
  • Prime Minister Gillard needs to listen to the warning sent by our regional neighbours and not dive Australia head first, into the world’s biggest carbon tax
  • This carbon tax will drive up prices, restrict employment, hurt manufacturing and add to the already steep electricity costs faced by households, all while Australia’s domestic emissions increase rather than decrease under the carbon tax
  • Julia Gillard has been very keen to compare her carbon tax with the New Zealand ETS. She now needs to heed the lessons learnt by NZ and desist from her broken promise job-threatening tax which doesn’t actually do the job

Coalition will repeal Labor’s damaging carbon tax:

  • The Coalition in government will move immediately to undo the damage on jobs and economic growth from Labor’s carbon tax
  • On day one of the new Parliament we will introduce new legislation
  • What this Parliament has done the next Parliament can undo
  • This is absolutely do-able — there is no booby trap that can’t be unwired
  • Under the Coalition there will be a tax cut without a carbon tax and a fair go for pensioners; the quantum will be announced in good time before the next election
  • Pensioners will be better off not worse off under the Coalition

Electricity brochure is yet more Labor propaganda:

  • People are paying the world’s biggest carbon tax, plus the costs of bureaucracy, plus Labor’s bailout packages, plus a $70 million ad bill
  • Now millions of electricity consumers will be hit with carbon tax propaganda, courtesy of Labor, direct inside their electricity bills
  • This two page glossy is a blatant bid by federal Labor to counter the detailing of the carbon tax price on power bills by the states
  • So even when you open your electricity bill you will be bombarded with more carbon tax spin from the government
  • Australians are paying this carbon tax — multiple times over

If asked: Loss of SAS soldier in Afghanistan:

  • All Australians will mourn the loss of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan; we extend our condolences to the soldier’s family, comrades and friends. We honour this soldier’s life and his sacrifice. The work in Afghanistan is about making the world a safer place, so that never again will it become a base for international terror. The death of this soldier is a reminder of the service and sacrifice of all Australian service personnel past and present, and we stand with them at this sad time

If asked: 3% increment on Members and Senators’ pay:

  • The independent Remuneration Tribunal determines Members’ and Senators’ remuneration

If asked: preselections for federal seats in Queensland:

  • These are matters for the Queensland LNP
  • The Coalition will field strong candidates who are committed to a better way than high-taxing, wasteful, divided, dysfunctional Labor. Coalition candidates will work to restore hope, reward and opportunity

Labor must accept the damage its carbon tax is doing:

  • Every Australian will pay the carbon tax
  •  Treasury estimates it will increase electricity prices by 10% and gas prices by 9%
  • Electricity prices are already amongst the highest in the developed world and the carbon tax will drive electricity prices sky-high
  • And households will also feel the impact of higher prices as the impact of the carbon filters through suppliers, businesses and supermarkets
  • Millions and millions of Australian households will be worse off
  • Many dual income families will be worse off once they reach the typical income of a school teacher and a shop assistant; or that of a policeman and a part-time nurse – the Government’s own figures admit it
  • And this carbon tax is legislated to go up and up; and the Greens will make sure it hikes even further

It won’t just be households carrying the carbon tax cost burden

  • 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
  • Labor is doing everything it can to scare small business with huge fines if they tell customers about the impact of the carbon tax on prices

It will also act as a wrecking ball across the economy, costing jobs and curtailing investment.

  • 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

And it will hit jobs…

  • By making Australian businesses more expensive and increasing the cost of our exports, the carbon tax will cost jobs across the economy, particularly in manufacturing and across industry
  • Deloitte Access modelling shows at least 23,000 jobs will be lost in Victoria and there would be a $2.8b hit to the economy by 2015 from the carbon tax
  • NSW Treasury expects 31,000 jobs lost by 2030 because of the carbon tax, including in the Hunter
  • In Queensland — 21,000 jobs will be lost according to Deloitte’s analysis; and Queensland Treasury sees a net loss in economic value of the State’s generation companies of $640m, all of which will ultimately be passed on to consumers
  • And it’s a global orphan — the Gillard carbon tax, at $23 a tonne, is the world’s biggest carbon tax

Further information:
Russ Neal
Office of Tony Abbott