House debates

Thursday, 28 October 2010

Questions without Notice

Climate Change

2:15 pm

Photo of Kevin AndrewsKevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to reported analysis by Grant King, the head of Origin Energy, that putting a price on carbon will triple electricity bills by 2020. Why is the Prime Minister intent on slugging struggling Australian families with higher electricity prices? When will she start taking the concerns of real Australian people seriously?

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

I thank the member for his question. I can absolutely assure him I take the concerns of Australians seriously, I take the concerns of Australians who want to leave a decent environment for their children and their grandchildren seriously and I take seriously the concerns of Australians who look at the household bills and then look at their pay packets and wonder how it is all going to add up. Because we take these things seriously, we have done a series of things to assist those families. I know it can still be tough, but let us imagine how much tougher it would be for those families if the laws in workplace relations that the member asking the question supports were still the laws of this country and next week’s pay packet was cut from the one of the week before. Of course, we have stepped up to assist working families with the cost of education, with child care, with tax cuts and we have promises to implement—

Photo of Luke HartsuykerLuke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance, Mr Speaker: this is not directly relevant to the question. The question asked about increased electricity prices, which this Prime Minister is not concerned about.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

I could say that the member for Mackellar is well placed to give advice on that, but I will not. But I am driven to do these things when I just have this continual chatter. The member for Cowper could have assisted if he had read the last part of the question which said, ‘When will the Prime Minister take the concerns of real Australians seriously?’ The construct of the question makes it difficult for the chair to indicate that the Prime Minister is not being directly relevant.

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

As I was saying in answering the question that was put to me, we do take the concerns of Australians seriously and that is why we have moved and will continue to move to implement measures to assist families with costs. That is why we will deliver things like the increase in the family tax benefit to assist families with the cost of teenagers. I would say to the member who asked the question that I understand that families are concerned about electricity prices. I would refer him to experts in the industry and I would refer him particularly to the quote that I took the Leader of the Opposition to before. I think it makes a real point. The TRUenergy managing director said:

We all would like a price on carbon.

               …            …            …

If it’s not done … then you will have power shortages and insufficient capacity.

This joins a chorus of other voices and analyses from the sector about the consequences of underinvestment, underinvestment which will not be rectified, and generating the kind of long-term baseload power we need until we have got the certainty of a price on carbon. I am also a little bit amazed that the member comes into the parliament apparently so in high dungeon and het up about these questions, because I would refer him to another important quote:

I also think that if you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax? Why not ask motorists to pay more? Why not ask electricity consumers to pay more? It would be burdensome, all taxes are burdensome, but it would certainly change the price of carbon, raise the price of carbon, without increasing in any way the overall tax burden.

There we have it. Whose words are they? They are the Leader of the Opposition’s words. So we have seen this Leader of the Opposition and the members behind him looking for seams of political advantage here. We will continue looking at the national interest and be driven by that.