Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I was explaining the way in which the government's policy will work. At the centre of it, with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, is not a system where politicians pick winners but a system where we have a board and management with commercial expertise which deals with projects on a commercial basis and ensures that they work to catalyse clean energy development in our economy.

I understand the member has an interest in this. The member may want to study some of the projects that have already been supported through other government mechanisms and see what is being achieved, because that might give him an understanding of what can be achieved through a mechanism like the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. For example, through our Solar Flagships program, in Chinchilla in Queensland we will see the development of a solar thermal power station which, if it were built today, would be the biggest in the world. It is that kind of clean energy development that will transform our economy. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation will work commercially with commercial expertise to help with the transformation, but at the centre of the transformation is putting a price on carbon pollution, which is what economists have advised us is the cheapest way of cutting carbon pollution, creating clean energy jobs, transforming our economy and reaching the carbon pollution emission targets that are agreed on both sides of the parliament. I certainly do not want to see—and perhaps the member would not want to see either—Australian families slugged $1,300 a year to pay for the Leader of the Opposition's carbon plan.

See this speech in context