THE government is failing to sell its carbon tax to North East voters, Member for Indi Sophie Mirabella says.
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In the past month the Liberal MP has collected almost 900 signatures for her anti-tax petition from residents in Wodonga, Wangaratta and Bright.
She said the electorate was angry and cynical about the government’s climate change policy.
“The more people have found out about it, the less popular it actually is,” Mrs Mirabella said.
“People don’t understand why we would be introducing a carbon tax that will make it expensive for people to make things in Australia.
“There are also concerns about the rising costs of living and they don’t believe the compensation is going to be enough.”
Mrs Mirabella said the government was attempting to “ram” the tax through Parliament without rigorous debate, because they knew their policy was unpopular.
She said it was not customary for a bill to be debated on the same day it was introduced to Parliament — but this is exactly what the government hoped to do tomorrow.
She was optimistic a Labor MP would break ranks and cross the floor to vote against the controversial legislation.
“No one should think the carbon tax is guaranteed to pass through parliament,” Mrs Mira-bella said.
“We all know that there are some very anxious members of the Labor party who don’t like this tax.
“All it will take is one of them to cross the floor and the tax will be dead.
“We always have to hope that one person will look past the interests of the current government.”
Mrs Mirabella will present her petition to Parliament in the coming weeks.
“I predicted that about 80 per cent of people that I approached would sign the petition, but it has probably been closer to 95 per cent,” she said.
