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

Let me point out the following facts. The Leader of the National Party is misusing the modelling completely. He is ascribing a cause and effect here which the modelling does not—a continuing part of the opposition's fear campaign on carbon pricing. The one thing you always know about the opposition when it comes to carbon pricing is that whatever they say is not the truth. Let us just look at the scoreboard. They said the coal industry would be shut down. Not true. They said Whyalla would be wiped off the map. Not true. The Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Auditor-General disputing the government's claims that nine out of 10 households were receiving assistance and he was repudiated because his approach was not true. At every stage in every way, the Leader of the Opposition and the team he leads have been out there spreading fear and not telling people the truth. It is time that the Leader of the National Party and the opposition generally actually respected working people enough to say to them what the truth is for their industry. The truth for this industry is that we are seeing a high Australian dollar with all of the pressure that that brings to bear. The Manager of Opposition Business might be bored by that, but the one million Australians who work in manufacturing are not bored by it. They understand the pressure of the high Australian dollar on their shoulders. Those working in the aluminium industry also understand that we have seen the price of aluminium fall by over 20 per cent since May last year. We are seeing reduced global prices. Those who work in the aluminium industry—

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