Senator CORMANN (Western Australia) (15:01): I move : That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Manufacturing (Senator Carr) and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Senators Birmingham and Williams today relating to the carbon tax. What has become obvious again today is that Labor's carbon tax is a bad tax. It is the world's largest, hardest-hitting, most complex carbon tax. It is a tax which is anti-manufacturing, it is a tax which is anti-jobs, it is a tax which is anti-workers, it is a tax which is anti-working families and it is a tax which will do nothing to reduce emissions either here in Australia or in the world. We of course know from the government's own figures that the carbon tax will push up the cost of everything. It will make Australian manufacturing businesses less competitive internationally. It will cost jobs. It will lead to lower real wages when compared to a situation without a carbon tax. This is, again, according to the government's own Treasury analysis. It will do all of that without doing anything to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing in Australia is already under pressure. Yes, manufacturing is doing it hard because of the high Australian dollar and because of the fragile state of the global economy. This is the worst time of all times to impose the world's largest, hardest-hitting and most complex carbon tax on the Australian economy. There is never a good time to make Australian businesses less competitive internationally without doing anything beneficial in the process, but this is the worst time of all possible times. If the Labor Party cared about manufacturing, if the Labor Party cared about jobs and if the Labor Party cared about Australian working families it would scrap the carbon tax today. But, of course, the Labor Party does not care about manufacturing, the Labor Party does not care about workers, it does not care about jobs it does not care about working families. It is quite happy for working families to be confronted with increasing costs of living. It is quite happy to impose a tax which will lead to lower real wages over time. It is quite happy to impose a tax which will take $1 trillion out of the economy between now and 2050 without doing anything to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Why would the Australian Labor Party do that? Because that is the price it has to pay in order to stay in government and because that is the price that the Australian Greens extracted from the Labor Party. The Australian Labor Party has sold out workers, has sold out working families across Australia to the Australian Greens and it absolutely knows it. The government says to us: 'Don't worry. On 1 July 2012 it will become obvious that the sky has not fallen in and that things are going to be okay.' Let me make this point: I agree and the coalition agrees that the sky will not fall in on 1 July 2012. But what will happen on 1 July 2012 is that, at the direction of this Labor-Greens government, Australia will take another step in the wrong direction, another step towards pushing up the cost of living for working families across Australia, another step towards putting manufacturing jobs under more pressure and another step towards lower real wages without doing anything to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong, again said today that the economy will continue to grow despite the carbon tax. Sure, that is true, the economy will continue to grow, but the economy will grow by much less, by $1 trillion less between now and 2050, according to the government's own Treasury analysis. That is making the assumption that both the US and China will have an emissions trading scheme in place by 2016, and we all know that there is no chance that this will happen. It is very clear that the government is completely disinterested when it comes to manufacturing and jobs, because otherwise they would not be proceeding with this tax, which will hurt working families, which is anti-manufacturing, which is anti-jobs and which will do nothing to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.