Earlier: The carbon tax is ditched
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► Prime Minister Tony Abbott has sent an email to supporters with the subject: "the Carbon Tax is gone!"
"This is great news for Australian families and for our nation's small businesses," he writes. "Scrapping the Carbon Tax will save the average family $550 a year. You’ll see the benefits in coming power bills."
► "One down, one to go!" said Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie, a long-term critic of the carbon tax, on her way out of the Senate. The "one to go" refers to the mining tax repeal.
► Member for Wagga Daryl Maguire let out a cheer of "hooray" at the abolishment of the carbon tax while Member for Riverina Michael McCormack said Labor was still in denial about what the public wanted.
► Mallee MP Andrew Broad said it's a good day for the Australian parliament: "The carbon tax was an experiment that failed - that's why we needed to get rid of it. If it worked, there wouldn't have been an argument."
► Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce says he is "glad that the carbon tax has been repealed and I know that the Australian Greens are upset by that".
"Even though we've got rid of the carbon tax today, if you want the carbon tax back, if you want to pay more than you should again, it's quite simple. Put Mr Shorten into government and you will get it back. It's still his policy. I believe that there is climate change happening, I just don't believe that we are going to change it with a broad-based consumption tax."
►Tasmanian Liberal and Braddon MP Brett Whitley believes families and small businesses will benefit from the repeal: "Scrapping the Carbon Tax will also take a cost burden off local businesses," Mr Whitley said. "Scrapping the carbon tax is just one part of our plan to build a stronger economy and create more jobs. There’s much more to do, but removing the world’s biggest carbon tax from the backs of everyday small businesses and families is an important step in building a stronger economy''.
► Lyons MP Eric Hutchinson said: "... it shows that this is really a government we can trust. It was one of our key commitments that will benefit households, families and small businesses. Look at my electorate and the North West-Coast (of Tasmania), it's full of small businesses. They're who shouldered the biggest burden because they were unable to pass on the costs of the tax to consumers.''
► Michael Ronaldson, Patron Senator for Ballarat, Eden-Monaro MP Dr David Hendy and Lyne MP Dr David Gillespie echoed those words. All issued press releases which said: “Today’s vote by the Senate to repeal the carbon tax is great news for local families and small businesses.”
► Parkes MP Mark Coulton has said that the Government has followed through on their clear mandate to repeal the carbon tax: “Scrapping the Carbon Tax will save the average household around $550 a year, including around $200 on the average household electricity bill and around $70 on the average gas bill. This will reduce cost of living pressures for all Australians”, Mr Coulton said.
► Gilmore MP, Liberal Ann Sudmalis, said scrapping the tax would save the average Gilmore family $550 a year and create more local jobs. She said the decision would also help "get the Budget under control'' to help fund infrastructure such as the replacement of the Nowra Bridge.
► Labor Member for Throsby Stephen Jones said the repealing of the carbon tax was the only election promise the governmemt intended to keep: "It came after an ordeal of frustration and embarrassment for the Government but will ultimately be an even bigger embarrassment for Australia, which is now the only country in the world to reverse action on climate change. History will judge this Government harshly for its refusal to believe that action is needed on climate change. Tony Abbott will do anything to ignore the science of climate change and send Australia backwards. It’s clear that he still thinks it is – in his own words – a “so-called science” and “absolute crap”.