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

I thank the member for Ryan for her question. My recollection is that I have been asked it before in this parliament, with that reference to President Obama's words. But let me say to the member for Ryan, who may be recycling a question from the past, that the answer to her question is as follows. In making sure that the biggest polluters, who currently put carbon pollution into our atmosphere for nothing, pay a price so that we reduce carbon pollution and do not see that carbon pollution increasing endlessly because there is no incentive to reduce it, which is the situation now—in putting a price on carbon pollution—what we have then done is, through Treasury modelling, to model the effects. I know that modelling has been frequently misrepresented by the opposition, but the modelling that the member for Ryan may want to direct her attention to shows what the flowthrough cost of living impact will be for Australian families, including the impact on electricity pricing. You model all of that impact, as the experts at Treasury have. These are the same experts who advised the coalition, when they were in office, about things like the goods and services tax and got the modelling right.

Those same experts have advised that the flow-through impact for families will be 0.7 per cent as an increase to CPI—that is, it will be less than a cent in a dollar. Understanding that, what the government has done is ensure that we direct money from big polluters to working families. They will see that through the tripling of the tax-free threshold. That means that working Australians, some of whom are in the tax system now, will no longer pay tax. It also means that those working Australians—

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