Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member for Perth whingeing about a compensation package. I hope that the member for Perth goes to those people who have had their electricity cut off and stand before them and say, 'You guys have a compensation package; it's okay.'

Opposition members interjecting—

This is not a laughing matter. There are Australians in this country tonight who, because of the carbon tax, have had their electricity cut off and cannot afford to heat their homes. This is not a laughing matter. What if that happens to you, as it happens to many people? How else can you heat your home? In Sydney, people actually go and burn wood to try to keep their home warm. What happens when you burn wood? You release pollution into the atmosphere—particulate pollution. This may come as new information for the people sitting on the other side, but particulate pollution actually kills. Thousands of people in Australia die every year from outdoor air pollution. And in Western Sydney we currently have a serious issue with particulate matter pollution. Currently Western Sydney measures 2.5 for particulate-matter pollution. We are above World Health Organisation standards since the carbon tax came in—for a pollution that causes lung cancer, heart disease and asthma. That is a fact of what this carbon tax—increasing electricity prices—is causing.

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