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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I went to Australia's reduction target for 2020 to give the parliament and the Leader of the Opposition an example of a nation—Australia—that has made an unconditional pledge to reduce its carbon pollution. We have made an unconditional pledge to reduce our carbon pollution by five per cent.

What the Treasury modelling does is assume that other countries meet their low-end pollution reduction targets for 2020 as well. The opposition knows that when it is not on a campaign of misrepresentation. That has been gone through at Senate estimates. That is a fact available to the opposition. In terms of the position of the United States of America, it was verified by President Obama in this parliament last Thursday when he restated the commitment of the United States of America to the reduction target that it has announced.

The Leader of the Opposition, I understand, is trying to do everything he can to continue his campaign of negativity, but he cannot live in denial of the facts, and the facts are as I have just explained them to the Leader of the Opposition. For him to say anything else or to do anything else is simply to mislead the Australian people.

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