"The Green-Labor-Independent government may not have worked out what the cost of a carbon tax would be on Australian working families but others are working it out very quickly" said Senator Barnaby Joyce.
Modelling by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment has estimated that a $25 carbon tax will increase Victorian's water costs by $20 million per year. Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo water retailers would have to find another $1.2 million each from their consumers.
Senator Joyce is in Gippsland today with the Victorian Minister for Water, Peter Walsh, hearing about concerns over high water prices.
"Carbon tax caused water price increases will be on top of the 45 per cent increase in water prices over the last three years, partly due to the proliferation of desalination plants which the former Premier of
New South Wales described as "bottled electricity".
"Mr Combet said on Fran Kelly's Radio National Breakfast that a carbon tax would not be a tax on consumers. Mr Combet you are wrong - it is a tax on consumers.
"Water authorities won't just absorb the cost they will push it on to the punters and the punters will pay.
"So when your clock radio tells you to get out of bed, that little red light is to remind you that Julia has been taxing you through the night. As you do your ablutions, they're taxing you brushing your teeth, as
you turn on the light they're taxing you reading the paper, as you iron your shirt they're taxing you for removing every crease.
"Mr Combet you will be taxing everything, it is the ultimate tax on the consumer and weasel words will not stand in proxy for a lack of detail.
"And Ms Gillard the Australian people will not tolerate being utterly and calculatingly misled."