Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On the impact of electricity prices flowing from the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, I would draw the opposition’s attention to the government’s white paper of the end of last year and also to the provisions contained within it for compensation for lower income households when it comes to the impact of higher electricity prices for households. It follows quite plainly that, if you adjust the carbon price in a country, it flows through to the general economy. That is why the government’s response to this through the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme deals with the need to bring down greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. That is the first principle. The second principle is to provide adjustment arrangements for industry who are most likely to be directly affected by this change in the carbon price. The third principle is a set of arrangements detailed in the government’s arrangements for providing assistance to households—in particular, pensioners, carers, seniors and other low-income households—as well as support for middle-income households and for motorists.

The question that the honourable member poses is: how do we deal with the impact on electricity prices for Australian households? The honourable member has also referred to a publication, which was apparently released yesterday, which goes to what might or might not currently constitute the opposition’s policy on climate change. When asked yesterday whether in fact the release of this document represented coalition policy, the Leader of the Opposition said no, it did not. Therefore we are left in the position—in this critical week when the Senate is due to vote on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, Australia’s response to the challenge of climate change—that the opposition, as of Tuesday of this week, two days before the vote is due in the Senate, has produced a document which it then goes out on the next breath and says is not coalition policy.

For 12 years those opposite stood in this place and did nothing when it came to emissions trading.

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