Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

The fact of the matter is that, by withdrawing this assistance by potentially increasing taxes and cutting pensions, the coalition need that money to fund their subsidy scheme for large polluters. What we have is a very clear choice in politics: a carbon price paid by the large polluters, the revenue from which can be dispersed partly to support households, pensioners and low- and middle-income households in particular; or, alternatively, we have a slug to taxpayers to the worth of $30 billion, the equivalent of $720 a year for an average household—that is what their policy means—in order to pay that money as a subsidy to hand-picked large polluters. That is the contrast in politics at this point in time. It highlights the reason why the use of a market mechanism is extremely important in pricing carbon in our economy.

This is what former Prime Minister John Howard had to say at the Melbourne Press Club on 17 July 2007 in relation to this specific issue of the use of market mechanisms. He said, in relation to people who will not respect the market:

They are the real climate change deniers because they deny … rational, realistic and sustainable policy solutions.

He went on to say:

The moralising tone of utopian internationalism is also not helpful. Institutions will only work and endure if they harness national interests.

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