Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This is part of a continuing campaign by those opposite to cast slurs on the Treasury, particularly to cast slurs on the Treasury because they have believed in a market price for carbon. The member knows only too well that the European carbon price has hit historic lows, and that is a fact and it has happened for a variety of reasons in Europe. Of course, that is now reflected in the floating price that has been projected by us when we come out of the fixed price period. But for him to somehow suggest that this is a slur on the forecasters, when in fact a market is operating like a market, just says so much about the modern Liberal Party. They do not understand markets either and it is no wonder they have got some form of direct action policy so that they are going to charge every Australian family $1,200, a new form of central planning and central intervention masquerading as policy from those opposite. So we do not apologise for a second for having a market based price and reducing carbon pollution in our society—and I said so in my speech last night. We will continue and proceed with our carbon-pricing regime because it is driving investment in alternative energy, particularly renewable energy, and it is giving us a clean energy future—and the contrast here with those opposite is quite stark.

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