Carbon Tax is tax on the Northern Territory’s remoteness
Labor’s Carbon Tax is a “toxic tax on remoteness” that will hurt the Northern Territory, Country Liberals Senator for the Northern Territory Nigel Scullion said during a speech in the Senate Chamber today.
“The further you are away from the capital cities the more you will pay,” Senator Scullion said.
“Yet the Labor Territory Senator Trish Crossin has said, 'I don't know what we are worried about. If you get a truck that goes from Sydney to Melbourne it is only another 35 bucks or 7c a litre. It is nothing.'
“As a Territorian I am not surprised she is quoting Sydney prices for fuel.
“Anybody who lives in Darwin or elsewhere in the Territory will say that it is going to be an inordinately worse issue if you are trying to purchase fuel in Darwin.
“By the way, Senator Crossin, it is a bit further from Adelaide to Darwin than it is from Sydney to Melbourne,” Senator Scullion said.
“Senator Crossin said that if you are a pensioner in the Northern Territory it is going to be okay because a couple would get an extra $255 a year each.
“I am not sure where they are going to splash their five dollars a week but it is not going to go too far.
“You do not get too many items in the bottom of your shopping trolley before five dollars a week is exhausted.
“These are all increases in prices and this is a toxic tax on remoteness.
“If you go back to why we are doing it, it just seems crazy; it is nuts.
“The only way the Labor Party could have been in power is with handshake of the Greens.
“In their eyes I can see they do not believe in a carbon tax.
“They did not believe in a carbon tax before the election, they do not believe in a carbon tax now, but it is in the interests of the Labor Party to be in power and so they have sold Australia out.
“I can recall much debate in the media much prior to the last election was all about whether the government would introduce a carbon tax.
“When the Coalition said, 'It looks like they might’, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer both emphatically denied any plan to introduce a carbon tax.
We even had the spectacle of the Prime Minister Julia Gillard saying days out from the election that: ‘There will not be a carbon tax under a government that I lead.’
“Labor knew that the last election was in the balance and if they actually told the Australian people that they were going to pursue a carbon tax that they would lose.
“Of course, when it came to the balance between what is in Australia's national interest and what is in the interest of the Labor Party, for Labor there is only one answer,” said Senator Scullion.
“Their response has always been to say, ‘Do what is in the best interest of the Labor party.’
“Labor did a deal with the Greens to introduce a carbon tax after the election simply to stay in power”, said Senator Scullion.
“The Prime Minister and the Labor members who now line up to support this tax have trashed their credibility in imposing a tax that they said we would never have, a toxic tax that does absolutely nothing for the global environment.
“It is a toxic tax that increases the cost of living on individuals, on families and on communities that are currently doing it tough,” Senator Scullion said.
