Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hurley for that question—a question that recognises that this is an economic reform. Pricing carbon is a major economic reform that will transform our economy and it is a major economic reform that those opposite are simply not up to. It is a reform that will transform our economy, and because it is an economic reform we know on this side of the chamber that we have to provide certainty to business so they make the investment decisions which are necessary for the transformation of the economy.

The opposition appears to have forgotten that business investment decisions are not only made for one year but made for many years. Businesses need to be thinking not just about the next year but about the next five years or the next 10 years. Certainty around a price on carbon means that businesses are better able to plan and prepare for these future decisions. Certainty around a price on carbon is fundamental to the better planning and preparation for these future decisions.

We are at a time in this country and in this parliament where we face a choice: do we want to shape the future or do we simply want to have the future imposed upon us? On this side of the chamber, we have Labor senators who are prepared to look to the future, prepared to reform for the future—a party that is prepared to build today for tomorrow. What we are faced with is nothing but a party of wreckers, led by a man who knows how to brawl, a man who knows how to destroy but a man incapable of leadership at this time, a man incapable of leadership in the face of this challenge. (Time expired)