To believe in the economically damaging carbon tax, Labor must think power is too cheap

The carbon tax is the tax to make you poorer, and a good example of this is the Draft Determination report on regulated retail electricity prices for 2012-13 released today by the Queensland Competition Authority.

The reality of this mad tax, is that every time you cook toast it will cost more, every time you wash your clothes it will cost more, every time you watch the television it will cost more, every time you turn the light on it will cost more, and every time you cool or heat your house it will cost more. Yet the climate will continue to do exactly what it is doing, as this tax will have absolutely no effect on climate whatsoever.

The Draft Determination report states that the carbon tax will push the typical residential household’s annual bill up by around $192.35 (11.2%).

When did Labor decide that the purpose of government is to reduce the standard of living? When did Labor decide that the purpose of government is to put people out of a job? When did Labor come to the conclusion that power bills are too cheap? When did the policy zealots take over government and decide to take us back to an environmental year zero?

This tax is going to hit Queensland the hardest, especially those areas which rely on mining, power generation and transport. Areas in regional Queensland like Mackay, Rockhampton, Townsville and Gladstone.

Unions are now asking for compensation for this mad piece of climate policy. Rather than asking for compensation for a piece of policy which we are told to believe will change the weather, I plead to the unions to tell their elected representatives in the Labor party to just get rid of the policy altogether, before the policy gets rid of your job.

David Murray, outgoing Chairman of the Future Fund has blasted the carbon tax as the worst piece of economic reform he has ever seen.

So if the unions don’t like it, big business doesn’t like it, manufacturing doesn’t like it, farmers don’t like it, the electorate pathologically hates it, well the question then is who actually wants it? And how powerful is that minority? Where is the constituency that wants this tax? In Warrego on the weekend, out of 20,000 votes, the Greens received only 325. Maybe this is an example of how toxic these types of green policies have become.

The Labor party have tried to change the name to make the tax more palatable. First it was a tax to deal with global warming, then it was a tax to deal with climate change and now it is a tax for clean energy. What’s next? The happy pet tax? The peace in our time tax? It’s all the same, it’s an insane and very economically dangerous bureaucratic rip off.

Barnaby Joyce is a Queensland senator, leader of the Nationals in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Local Government.