Labor, coalition in 'seat-by-seat' battle over carbon tax

27/06/2012 - Federal Labor and the coalition are poised to engage in a seat-by-seat battle to win over voters once the carbon tax starts in five days. Paul Osborne

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Labor MPs were briefed by ALP national secretary George Wright in Canberra on Tuesday on a plan to target Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's "Chicken Little" approach to the tax and portray the ALP as the party of the future.

Labor has produced a flyer using the "Abbott Little" theme featuring a picture of Abbott as a chicken crying: "The sky is falling."

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet reinforced the message in parliament, saying that companies visited by Abbott to talk up the adverse impact of the carbon tax had in fact increased their investment since the visits.

"There is very strong investment in the Australian economy in full knowledge of carbon price starting on July 1 and that is despite all of the efforts by the leader of the opposition to talk the economy down," Combet said.

The minister cited Peabody Coal's $5 billion takeover a day after Abbott declared the "death of the coal industry", BHP Billiton's $822 million investment in Mt Whaleback iron ore mine, Austal shipyard's $400 million of new contracts at Henderson in WA and packaging giant Visy's $300 million waste-to-energy proposal for Queensland's Gibson Island.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard told parliament that Abbott's fear campaign about the carbon tax would be "exposed for the hollow sham it has been".

The opposition leader was confronted by a protester dressed as Chicken Little when he visited the Canberra RSPCA on Tuesday to talk about the carbon price's impact on charities.

Abbott told his coalition colleagues in the last party room meeting before the six-week parliamentary winter break that he would campaign seat-by-seat around the nation on four key points.

They were the impact on the cost of living, the threat to jobs, the prime minister's broken promise not to introduce a carbon tax and the coalition's firm promise to repeal it if elected.

Backing up the Liberal leader's pledge, the party has targeted 7000 small businesses in Labor marginal seats with posters apologising for the price impact of the carbon tax.

Abbott said consumers had a right to know that the carbon price would push up the cost of such things as meat, haircuts, bread, fruit and vegetables and dry cleaning.

Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said businesses making false claims about price rises ran the risk of fines of up to $1.1 million for misleading consumers.

The $23/tonne carbon price will apply to just under 300 businesses with the highest carbon dioxide emissions from July 1, with the government providing compensation to low and middle-income households for flow-on price increases.

Have your say...

alan | 27/06/2012 10:41 1

Nice work Mr Bradbury, the people have told you that they don't want the Carbon Dioxide Tax but no, that's not good enough for Labor, so now you are going to bully and threaten business owners, ie. the very people who do most of the employing in the country. Take your threats and bugger off the people will not be bullied by you or anyone else. Bring on an election

Rick | 27/06/2012 14:22 2

Bring on an Election and throw this red headed piece of work with her fellow cronies out on the streets.Let them live in the dark like the rest of us.The cost of electricity is absolutely ridiculous .

Phillip | 27/06/2012 14:32 3

Good on you Mr Combet! As always, no idea what's going on in the real world like the rest of your govt. Talk to some of the majority employers in this country, small business owners. We are all down on last years dismal figures. We have received numerous notifications from our suppliers of impending price rises due to the carbon tax. We run a 20 year old food business that uses large refrigeration and employ a dozen people. Imagine the increase in our power bill alone! We will be forced to raise prices or we will close and the tiny govt assistance offered to SOME of our staff won't be much help when they are unemployed. The govt assistance package will not even come close to to covering the increased indirect costs and prices people will incur AFTER their basic utility increases. The whole thing is Ludicrous!! By the way if you're going to tax Carbon Dioxide (which the EPA don't even record as it's not considered a pollutant), you should tax people who Jog for excess emissions!

Phillip | 27/06/2012 14:45 4

Toscamaster | 27/06/2012 14:55 5

The Libs must be secretly delighted with Labor's determination to keep us focused on this disastrous Carbon Tax - especially in marginal seats. The more that Labor pollies talk about it and the longer it takes before we eventually get to the polls the longer that Labor will be in deep political oblivion. Labor’s only hope is for Gillard (or another Prime Minister) to come clean about corruption of climate science. The PM needs to do that before Abbott does it and rescinds Liberals flawed Direct Action policy and commitment to the 20/20 RET (Renewable Energy Target) in lock step with Labor. Come on Tony - you can do it. Have some guts man. Aussies will flock to your side in the election if you just stare down Turnbull's hidden agenda for his mates at Goldman Sachs.

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