December 9, 2009

“The Prime Minister’s claim that families will be compensated is just more spin and hollow rhetoric. The Australian Food and Grocery Council estimates that grocery prices will rise by five per cent because of Kevin Rudd’s ETS. Such an increase will absorb any compensation the government is offering and that is before consumers get their power bill. The reality is that power bills are going to rise by a further 30 per cent under Kevin Rudd’s. In New South Wales that 30 per cent increase is on top of the 30 per cent jump in the cost of electricity because of price hikes by NSW Labor Government.

“Mr Rudd’s massive new ETS tax will hit all Australian families hard but it will be low and middle income families who will bear the brunt of this economic reform. The Rudd ETS will effectively increase by 25 per cent. That’s how much additional revenue the government will raise and that’s because consumers will be paying more for everything they buy. Working families are already struggling as grocery prices skyrocket, interest rates rise and child care costs continue to escalate.

“Federal Labor’s agenda is to increase taxes on every consumer purchase. And if Australia goes it alone on Climate Change we will soon be exporting jobs overseas. Kevin Rudd must come clean with the Australian people and explain how slugging all Australians with a new tax is going to save the planet. He tried to rush this ETS through so he had a trophy in his pocket for the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen.  He is putting his own ego and ambitions ahead of the national interest and the welfare of Australian families.”