LARGE Orange business owners are united in the belief that everyone will be better off when the Coalition has successfully had the carbon tax abolished.
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The carbon tax was expected to be repealed yesterday but was held up by Coalition backroom talks on a list of other bills to be brought on for debate before the Senate rises tomorrow for a five-week break.
Jeff Hort Engineering owner Jeff Hort is adamant the carbon tax should never have been introduced and put Australia “years and years behind”.
“Absolutely we’ll be better off, the carbon tax along with the mining tax were silly taxes to begin with,” he said.
“My opinion is the taxes put us in financial decline and as a country we were not ready for it.
“When Labor added the two taxes it blew us out of the water but now it’s going to be scrapped, it will bring a lot more money onshore instead of places like Argentina, Brazil and Chile, especially in the mining sector.”
Barrett’s Shoppe owner George Tanos estimates his food delivery business services more than 1000 businesses across the region each week. He estimates the carbon tax cost him more than $300,00 annually, which was in-turn passed on to his customers.
“I can’t wait for it to be scrapped - my biggest concern is why it wasn’t scrapped earlier than this,” he said.
“Each year the carbon tax costs us around $300,000 and that’s not including fuel costs. Unfortunately these costs have been passed onto our customers who have had to suffer and pay more unnecessarily.”
Mr Tanos believes as a result of these increases, his business, like thousands of others, has suffered with many regular customers unable to afford the price increases forced under the tax.
He said once the tax was abolished he would gladly pass on savings to his consumers.
“Absolutely everybody across the country benefits if the carbon tax is scrapped - it has my support 100 per cent,” he said.
“As soon as we see the savings those savings will be passed onto our customers which will give them more dollars to put food on the table.”
It was a sentiment shared by Mr Hort.
“We’re mostly selling to the mining sector, but the little bits and pieces we sell to mums and dads will be a lot cheaper,” he said.
“Consumers and manufacturers will all benefit.”
lukeschuyler@fairfaxmedia.com.au