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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The question went to the impact on electricity prices and went to recent decisions by the WA government prior to any passage by this parliament of any emissions trading scheme. I will just repeat that to go back to the basic logical flaw in the question. Secondly, our position in terms of the impact on electricity prices is clear, it is documented, it is on the public record and we have said it day after day. What has not been clear on the part of those opposite is the hidden penalties regime buried within their own scheme. They say that, if you breach so-called business as usual, then businesses unspecified in number will be penalised. When asked what the financial penalty is, they run and they hide and they do not say what it is. But there are three questions which arise here: how many businesses, how big is the penalty and where does the compensation lie?

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