Mr JOHN COBB (6:46 PM) —The New South Wales Labor Party has increased power bills by over 20 per cent this year, with more increases to come. Already small businesses and farmers are struggling to make ends meet with this massive fixed costs impost. One small business owner in Molong has seen his power bills skyrocket by $4,000 a month from four years ago. A local fruit grower told me that from June to July this year his electricity costs for cold storage increased by $1,000. This is before any ETS is foisted upon us, which ABARE states will increase power bills by a further 24 per cent in five years. The nation cannot afford Rudd’s ETS, and people in regional Australia know that they will have to bear the brunt of Rudd’s desire to make himself look like a hero at Copenhagen.

In the central west we grow pretty much all the food you can think of, from fruit and vegetables in Bathurst and Orange to cereal crops and meat further west. Because food producers are price-takers they cannot afford major increases in costs associated with the production of food and fibre because the margins are not there. Food processing, including abattoirs, is also a very important source of employment in Calare. Rudd’s ETS will put Australian businesses out of business, not only because of the increased costs imposed by the carbon tax but also because they will have to compete with a flood of products from offshore that will not be subject to any carbon tax. Coles’ and Woolworths’ loyalty to buying Australian grown produce is only as skin-deep as their next PR campaign. (Time expired)