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

I have the page of the Garnaut report that the Leader of the Opposition refers to. It will not surprise anyone in this parliament to know that he is misrepresenting the force of Professor Garnaut's words. When you read these words, try to understand them, digest them and think about them in the national interest rather than try to clip a few out to use for a petty political agenda. What you actually find when you read Professor Garnaut's words is this, and very clearly: Professor Garnaut is there contrasting and comparing the costs for Australian households of two ways of pricing carbon—the way that the government is talking about by putting a price on carbon which businesses pay or the way that the Leader of the Opposition is talking about through regulatory mechanisms. He is comparing and contrasting those two approaches. The Leader of the Opposition cannot rely on one sentence in this document and not use the force of every other sentence. Professor Garnaut very, very clearly concludes that the mechanism the Leader of the Opposition is advocating is more costly for Australian households. Let me read the quote:

Using direct action measures to achieve a similar amount of emissions reduction would raise costs much more than carbon pricing …

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