07-March-2011
Portfolio Media Releases
Treasurer Wayne Swan has again been exposed as a walking contradiction.
In his latest embarrassment Mr Swan says today:
“Australia’s economy moved away from picking winners and towards market mechanisms decades ago – it is time Mr Robb and the Liberal Party got with the program.”
“Wayne Swan makes this absurd comment against the backdrop of Labor’s $50 billion NBN, the biggest single example of a government recklessly attempting to pick a winner in our nation’s history,” Shadow Minister for Finance, Debt Reduction and Deregulation Andrew Robb said.
Wayne Swan’s confusion is on full display with his absurd claim that the Coalition’s Direct Action policy does not represent a market-based mechanism.
“The Coalition’s Direct Action approach is most certainly market based. It will see tenders issued across various industries and sectors for initiatives which achieve least cost, value for money, Co2 emissions abatement,” Mr Robb said.
“In the real estate market today, for example, many properties are sold by way of tender. Is Mr Swan saying this is not a market based mechanism?
“Is he also saying that innovations and gains as a result of the Direct Action approach won’t create competitive tension in the use and production of energy?
Mr Swan should explain why so many leading economists are scathing of his “go it alone” carbon tax, Sinclair Davidson, Geoff Carmody, Henry Ergas and Tim Hughes to name but a few.
“They have called Labor’s unilateral carbon tax for what it is, ‘economic madness’, which for many industries provides one type of certainty. The certainty of a bullet,” Mr Robb said.