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

I thank the member for Wills for his questions. As a Victorian he knows there is an important carnival going on over the weekend and into next week in Victoria.

Carbon pricing has been in place now for four months and the economy is growing, inflation is contained, interest rates have come down, investment is growing—the economy is strong. That is the reality of carbon pricing in our economy: the economy is continuing to grow. It is a very different picture indeed to the nightmare that was presented over the last 18 months by the Leader of the Opposition. We all know he predicted that whole towns were going to disappear, industries were going to be ruined, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be destroyed and the weekly shopping trip would bankrupt families.

I am asked about the impact on major events in particular. The Leader of the Opposition has also claimed that the whole Australian way of life is under threat from carbon pricing. But major events, like the Spring Racing Carnival, which are surely cornerstones of our way of life, are underway, and I want to reassure racing fans that there is no cause for alarm. Carbon pricing will not stop the Victoria Derby on Saturday and it will not stop the Melbourne Cup next Tuesday. The carnival is going to go well.

Treasury modelling showed the carbon price impact on sport and recreation will only be 0.3 per cent, or around 20c a week. Fashion at Flemington is going to be okay because last week's CPI figures showed the price of women's clothing actually fell by 0.2 per cent in the September quarter! What people with an interest in the racing industry need to know is that the Leader of the Opposition's scare campaign has been the biggest shakedown since the Fine Cotton affair in 1984! The ring-in that day, for those who can remember, was called Bold Personality. That is all we have had from the Leader of the Opposition. The rest of it is all rubbish, a complete shakedown, and frankly it is time that the Liberal Party stewards started to intervene here and had a look at a bit of change.

What about the member for Wentworth? A classy thoroughbred if ever there was one! He was badly checked by the member for Warringah in the 2009 race. The member for North Sydney is hungry for a win, but he has demonstrated yet again today that he is not up to group 1 racing level—he is out of the chamber. Then there is the member for Curtin: three times runner-up—surely a chance this time! The member for Cook is a promising weight-for-ager, I reckon, but spooked by foreign horses every time! Or the member for Mackellar, a favourite in 1994, and what a stayer—she's still here! (Time expired)

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