Article by Matthew Killoran courtesy of the Courier Mail.
In his strongest attack yet, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is going to war with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over resources, accusing him of using “whips and chains of tax and regulation” against private enterprise, while one of his top lieutenants declared Australia needs to stop being “ashamed of being a resources nation”.
In a call to arms, Mr Dutton will call on the gas sector to “speak up … and push back and fight for yourselves” against government policies, including the coal and gas price caps, as well as changes to taxes, environmental protection and industrial relations.
The offensive comes a week after the first federal budget surplus in 15 years, which was achieved in part due to record revenue from the resources sector.
Mr Dutton, who will deliver the blast at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association’s national conference in Adelaide on Thursday, will also claim Labor’s key climate change policy is “three times more” than Julia Gillard’s carbon tax.
Invoking former US president Ronald Reagan’s defence of the free market, Mr Dutton will call the Albanese government “one of the most interventionist governments in the nation’s history”.
Opposition resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald will also speak at the conference, saying Australia needs to stop being “ashamed of being a resources nation”.
Mr Dutton will accuse the government of jeopardising energy security and chasing off foreign investment.
“We’re witnessing one of the most interventionist governments in our nation’s history,” he will say.
“It wants to use the chains and whips of regulation and tax to control and cannibalise the private sector.”
Quoting Mr Reagan, Mr Dutton will criticise Labor’s recent coal and gas price caps, urging an end to the policy and to let “freedom solve the problem through the magic of the marketplace”.
The government introduced the price caps in a bid to limit the amount that retail power bills increase, with an average Queensland power bill expected to rise by $321 from July, or $262 less than it otherwise would have.
Mr Dutton also will take aim at the ramped-up “safeguard mechanism” – a carbon cap and trade scheme legislated by Labor with support from the Greens late last year.
“It’s a new carbon tax – let’s call it for what it is – and it’s three times more than the one put forward by Julia Gillard,” Mr Dutton will say.
The claim that the safeguard mechanism is “three times more” than the carbon tax is based on the $75-a-tonne price cap on carbon credits, compared to the $23-a-tonne carbon price of the differently calibrated Gillard-era policy.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has previously pointed out that the safeguard mechanism was originally introduced by the Abbott Coalition government and largely has support from the business sector.