Rhetoric continues as carbon tax hits

AAP

As one of the country’s most contentious political issues becomes reality, both sides of politics are busily continuing the public campaign to spruik or refute the merits of the carbon tax.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said most of the country will go about their normal Sunday activities on July 1, the day the nation’s 500 biggest polluters start paying a $23-a-tonne carbon price.

With compensation measures being handed out to households, Ms Gillard believes Australians will be able to judge for themselves the impact the carbon tax will have.

“People will go about their ordinary, everyday business but they will be in a position tomorrow to judge for themselves the claims that have been made to see what carbon pricing really does mean,” she told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbot continued his attack on the carbon tax in a speech to the Liberal Party’s Federal Council in Melbourne on Saturday, promising to repeal it if his party is elected to government.

“The next election will be a referendum on the carbon tax and on prime ministers who tell lies,” he told the Liberal Party members.

Opposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt also weighed into the debate saying Sunday was just the beginning of the price rises Australians will face with the start of the carbon tax.

“From today, every time you switch on a light, the computer, the heating, the cooling or even make a cup of coffee, you are paying the carbon tax,” he said in a statement.

“For business, it comes at the worst possible time as manufacturers battle a high Australian dollar while their overseas competitors are given a further advantage by not having to pay the carbon tax.”

Both sides of politics can at least agree on one thing – Australians will indeed judge the effects the carbon tax has on them.

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