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

Paul Howes and many people have views on the climate change debate. I have my views. I have my views about the operation of the electricity market. I have my views about the need to ensure that we price carbon to drive a fuel switch. I have my views about how we best enable innovation in the sector and the competitiveness of renewable energy. If the Leader of the Opposition had been paying any attention in question time yesterday then he would know that I actually answered a question directly on this point and I refer him to that answer. I also refer him to my speeches on the topic so that he can get more detail.

What I can say to the Leader of the Opposition about how people form their views about carbon pricing is that people work through this issue and think about it. I think there is only one person in this debate who has ever been described as a weather vane on climate change. Of course, that description was by the member for Wentworth of the Leader of the Opposition when he recorded that:

Tony himself has, in just four or five months, publicly advocated the blocking of the ETS, the passing of the ETS, the amending of the ETS and, if the amendments were satisfactory, passing it, and now the blocking of it.

His only redeeming virtue in this remarkable lack of conviction is that every time he announced a new position to me he would preface it with ‘Mate, mate, I know I am a bit of a weather vane on this, but …’

There is only one person in this debate who is a weather vane, and that is the man who asked the question.

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