Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, would you advise the House exactly how much more the cost of bus, taxi and rail fares will increase under your emissions trading model?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite, at least up until recently—and based on interjections today, perhaps still—support an emissions trading scheme. In response to my earlier statements that they had backed away from a cap-and-trade, those opposite said that no, they had not.

What is the feature of a cap-and-trade? It is that the carbon price changes, and if the carbon price changes—set by the market—accordingly the flow-through impact to the economy changes over time as well. That is the first point, which the honourable member should be familiar with, as I know he is a critical contributor to these deliberations in the shadow cabinet.

The second point I would make is that if the honourable member were serious about the measures that we put in place to compensate households, particularly those at the lower end of the income spectrum, for the flow-through impact on goods and services, I would draw his attention to what we have said for the lowest income earners and for middle income earners and for motorists. It is made explicit in our policy on this matter, and I would draw his attention to it.