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  • Tony Abbott and Bruce Billson joint doorstop interview - Julia Gillard’s carbon tax

    02/03/11

    E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………

    TONY ABBOTT:

    I’m very pleased to be here at John Fragopoulos’ excellent seafood business. This business is typical of the tens of thousands of small businesses right around Australia that will be hit by the Prime Minister’s carbon tax – the carbon tax that she wasn’t honest about before the election. John is paying something like $3,000 a month for his electricity already. The bill is high and rising. Under the carbon tax he could expect to pay at least another $800 a month more. Now, this is going to be a terrible hit on families’ cost of living. As I said, what the Prime Minister is doing is taking a knife to the family budget. The cost of fish and the other food that you put on your plate will go up thanks to the Prime Minister’s carbon tax. She should’ve been honest about it before the election. Now, she should be honest about the impact that this will have on the cost of living of struggling Australian families.

    I’m going to ask John to say a few words and then I’m going to ask Bruce to say a few words.

    JOHN FRAGOPOULOS:

    As far as we’re concerned as small business, Tony, they are giving us, they’re asking us to accept an emission tax here without providing any kind of formula or any kind of knowledge as to what we are looking for and at this stage, it’s unknown and how can you accept something like this? Having said that, perhaps inevitably maybe one day, some structure may become available and make it more approachable but at this stage, how can you vote for something like this? Perhaps Julia Gillard may come here and it’s an open invitation of course to come and tell us as you are here right now. Unless we hear and we know what to vote for, how can we go down that path?

    TONY ABBOTT:

    Well, that’s exactly right. I mean, the Prime Minister talks about certainty. What she has done is injected a massive note of uncertainty into the lives of business, particularly small business. If she gets what she wants, the only real certainty will be that prices will go up and up and up. Bruce?

    BRUCE BILLSON:

    Thanks, Tony. Look, 80 per cent of small businesses took Julia Gillard at her word and have not planned for a carbon tax. Small business has been absorbing increasing costs. We’ve seen 300,000 jobs lost in small business since the election of this Labor Government and what John’s touched on is small business just can’t keep absorbing additional cost after additional cost. Cost-conscious customers, tight margins for small business, this is no way to get behind small business. They’ve been stooged into believing there would be no carbon tax, now there is one on the horizon and they’re rightly concerned about the impact on their viability and on small businesses’ ability to employ many, many, many millions of Australians.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Abbott, are you going to stop your frontbenchers using comparisons to Colonel Gaddafi?

    TONY ABBOTT:

    Well, what I can’t stop is the anger that so many people feel about what they think is a betrayal by this Government. Now, I certainly think that we should conduct this debate in civil terms but the fact is people are understandably angry about what they see as a betrayal.

    QUESTION:

    [inaudible]…the frontbench?

    TONY ABBOTT:

    Well, as I said, I think that people are very angry about this and I think that there is understandably a lot of passion in the community about this betrayal by the Prime Minister.

    QUESTION:

    Have you hauled Sophie Mirabella over the coals over this one?

    TONY ABBOTT:

    I’ve said to all my colleagues that it’s very important that this debate by conducted in suitable terms. The thing is that we have to hold the Government to account. We have to hold them fiercely to account for what has been, really, a betrayal of the Australian people but we’ve also got to remember that we are the alternative government of this country and we’ve got to conduct ourselves in ways that befit the alternative government of this country.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Abbott, talking about civil terms, did you go a little bit far yesterday with John Laws when you said that the Prime Minister should be held to account for her broken promise when you said that “I mean, people shouldn’t ignore these things, I mean, murder is going to happen but that doesn’t mean that we should repeal the laws against murder and that we should let it go unpunished. I mean if people do the wrong thing, there should be appropriate consequences.” Is it right to use a metaphor about murder in relation to a broken political promise?

    TONY ABBOTT:

    Look, I think it is very important that the Prime Minister be held to account for what is a total breach of faith with the Australian people. Let’s not forget she went to the people saying “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”. Less than six months afterwards, we’ve got a carbon tax. Now, this is dishonesty, it’s a betrayal, it’s a breach of faith and I expect her to be held to account for it.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Abbott, the Gillard Government says that your direct action policy is going to cost $20 billion more and leave people about $700 worse off. What’s your response to that?

    TONY ABBOTT:

    Well, I simply don’t accept it. My policy has been out there for well over 12 months now. We believe that we can achieve over ten years a reduction in emissions of 140 million tonnes. We believe that we can do it at an average cost of $15 a tonne. It’s been out there now for a year. It stands up and the point I make is that it is the only plan on the table and it’s interesting that we’ve got the Government running around pretending to analyse our plan over a ten year period and they have no clear plan of their own. They can provide no details of their own. Now, I think this is typical of a Prime Minister who is more like an alternative Prime Minister than a real leader of our country.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Abbott, have you spoken directly with Sophie Mirabella this morning about her comments?

    TONY ABBOTT:

    The point I make is that it’s very important that this debate be conducted in suitable terms but I can understand why people feel very let down and betrayed by this Prime Minister. I think it’s important, though, that the debate be conducted with the suitable parameters of a robust democracy and we are a very robust and strong democracy.

    Thank you.

    [ends]
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