I read with interest Rob Taber’s recent letter (NDL, July 21) regarding the supposed loss of benefits following the repeal of the carbon tax.
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As a senior member of the government, and one who started the campaign within the Coalition to rid Australia of the carbon tax back in 2009, I am proud that we have finally made good on this key election pledge and I firmly stand by the removal of this job-destroying tax.
The carbon tax was ultimately a broad-based consumption tax that not only directly increased electricity prices by 9 per cent, but also increased the price of goods and services right throughout the economy and placed Australian businesses and jobs at a competitive disadvantage against those who would take our markets off us.
I would remind readers that this was in fact the entire point of the carbon tax – to make things more expensive.
In fact, modelling reveals the Labor-imposed carbon tax of $23 would rise to $60/tonne by 2030.
The Abbott-Truss government has abolished the carbon tax, but importantly, we have also kept the compensation associated with the tax as we promised we would. Therefore no pensioner will be directly worse off as a result of the carbon tax repeal.
I don’t want to be critical of Mr Taber in making these mistakes, but it’s really important to correct the record. The compensation stays and the carbon tax goes.
Barnaby Joyce MP
Member for New England