Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, representing the Treasurer. How will putting a price on carbon pollution reform Australia's economy, build our future prosperity and strengthen our international competitiveness?

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Petrie for her question, because she understands, like all of the government do, that the clean energy legislation package will provide prosperity for this nation into the future. It will build our future prosperity. We on this side of the House wish to reduce carbon pollution for a clean energy future. We understand that business needs certainty and that the largest polluters should pay the price of their pollution. But, because we are a Labor government, we understand that families need a fair go and that certain industries will need help on the path of transition. That is why the package that was passed yesterday will target only the biggest polluters, while nine out of 10 households will be compensated, and it is how we will cut 160 million tonnes of carbon pollution by 2020.

In the great tradition of Labor, we understand that change in our economy is inevitable. From the 19th century of gold and farming through to the manufacturing story after World War II and now our growing and prosperous services economy, we understand that we cannot resist the future and that to turn our back on the future is selling our people short. We want to move into a low-pollution economy with good jobs, clean technologies, powerful innovation and a sustainable future. We will still be an agricultural producer with the changes we have made. We will still be a manufacturer with the changes we have made. And we will still be producing services, but we will not be a rapidly-expanding carbon producer.

The Labor government will help people through this change. Not only are we delivering reform but we will be assisting the workforces and families with reskilling and new training. We will make sure that people do not get left behind in the process of economic change. As former Prime Minister Paul Keating remarked on 11 July this year, the pricing mechanism is 'part of the Labor tradition of change, the Labor tradition of the adaptation of the economy'.

Unfortunately the opposition are stuck in the past. The Leader of the Opposition is a modern-day King Canute who would say that you can turn back the tide. There is no credible plan for the opposition to address climate change. They have the famously misnamed 'direct action plan'. Not a single economist supports it and it will rip away the significant tax cuts and pension increases which are delivered to people under our plan. Former Prime Minister Howard understood the need to be internationally competitive. He understood the importance of getting on with it now. He said at the Melbourne Press Club on 17 July 2007:

In the years to come it will provide a model for other nations to follow.

Being among the first movers on carbon trading in this region will bring new opportunities and we intend to grasp them.

The shadow Treasurer tried to rewrite this history on radio this morning, but he got caught out. We have a problem in this parliament; it is called the opposition. They are crippled by philosophical contradictions. Former Prime Minister Howard supported an ETS. Brendan Nelson supported an ETS. The member for Wentworth probably still supports an ETS. In fact, I suspect that nearly half of those opposite support an ETS, but they are not brave enough or they have been gagged from voting with their conscience. The real issue for our prosperity is you can lie to the people and say to them that you cannot change. Only the conservatives would have you believe you cannot change. We are clear: change is inevitable and we want to help our people move on with it. (Time expired)

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before calling the Ninja warrior from Hume, having shown his support for a worthwhile cause, I ask him to remove his bandanna so I can give him the call. I notice that others are also supporting a worthwhile cause. I was worried that the member for Chifley had not done his colours, but I realise it is the member for Shortland's pink bandanna.

Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, thank you for your support of the Kids with Cancer Foundation. My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the situation facing Sarah Jane Furniture, a manufacturer in Cowra that employs over 130 Australians and estimates there will be an increase in its weekly power bill from $13,000 to $21,000 because of the carbon tax. Why is there no compensation for this business when it has achieved a 36 per cent reduction in its carbon footprint over the last three years at its own expense?

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

In answer to the member's question, firstly, I would be very happy to work with the member to get additional information to the business that he identifies in his electorate because the power figures he has used and the anticipated increase are not right, cannot be right and if the business believes them to be right then clearly it does not have the full information. The figure he used was something like a 50 per cent increase. Of course, that is not right. I would be very happy to work with the member to get accurate information to that business about any cost changes it should expect to see. I would also be very happy to work with the member to make sure the business that he has identified as a manufacturing business is kept informed of the rollout of the more than $1 billion that has been set aside in the carbon pricing package in order to work with manufacturing for a clean technology future. I would be very happy to work with the member to make sure this business gets that information.

The member's question highlights that as a result of many, many months of a fear campaign there are many Australians who are anxious but who do not need to be anxious. They have been given the wrong information by the Leader of the Opposition. They have deliberately had their fear and anxiety stoked by the Leader of the Opposition. Those Australians have heard some of the wild and ridiculous claims made about astronomical increases in prices when the impact on households is less than 1c in the dollar or less than one per cent of CPI.

Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr Speaker, I asked the Prime Minister a very specific question. I did not ask her about the veracity of the information I received from an employer of 130 people in my electorate.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister is responding to the question.

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

I am very seriously responding to the member's question because it does concern me that a business that employs 130 people is obviously anxious about a power rise of that magnitude when it will not occur. That does concern me. I am saying to the member that I am very happy to work with him so that he sees all of the information and is able to give it to the business involved. Of course, I would want the business to know about the assistance that is available for a clean technology future. I was going on to make a broader point about the anxiety and fear that has been stoked by false campaigning. I do believe that false campaigning should come to an end and that people should get accurate information about the package. I am very happy to work with the member on doing that.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. Is the Prime Minister seriously suggesting that she knows more about the business of Sarah Jane Furniture than the member for Hume and the principals of the business? Is this Prime Minister arrogant enough to seriously believe that she knows more about the business than they do?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the Leader of the Opposition that a question couched in those terms, which is wider than allowed by the standing orders, has consequences. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

To the Leader of the Opposition, no, of course I am not suggesting that—how absurd. The proprietors of those businesses will always know more about those businesses than anybody else. I do say this to the Leader of the Opposition: I do believe that it is appropriate and proper to get full and accurate information to businesses about government policies and plans. He might feel that that is inappropriate. He might feel that it is not right for people to get to the truth. He might feel that people should be denied that information. He might prefer it if people never heard the facts.

I do not share that with him. I think this business deserves the respect of getting all of the information and all of the facts. I have just made a very open offer to the member in good faith and very genuinely to do that. He has used a figure about increases in power costs which simply seems to me to imply that there are some misapprehensions in that business about the imposition of carbon pricing and the way it will work in our economy. I am very happy to work with the member on that.

To the Leader of the Opposition I would say after this discussion that we had in the lead up to yesterday's vote, after this debate of over more than 10 years now, the vote yesterday was about this nation's future. It was about jobs, prosperity and clean energy. I know the Leader of the Opposition thinks that it was about politics and personal pointscoring. It was about something far more important than that. What I never hear from the Leader of the Opposition is him engaging with this national debate. He is there with a policy that everyone knows will not work. He is there with a policy that will take money out of the purses and wallets of families—

Mr Pyne interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt is warned!

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

and give it to the biggest polluters. He is there with a policy he has no active belief in because he has said in the past that he is in favour of carbon pricing. He has supported in the past an emissions trading scheme and he is now trying to pretend to the Australian people that somehow he is going to act on pricing carbon if he is ever elected. He should stop this pretence and he should actually engage with this debate on the basis of what is in the national interest, not his political interest. It is time for the nation to seize this new clean energy future—that was what yesterday's vote was all about.