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

I understand Minister Combet has previously indicated the government's expectation in relation to the cost impact of the carbon price on housing supplies and house prices is expected to be less than 1 per cent. Information provided by the CSIRO shows that most of the products used in building a house, such as steel, cement and aluminium, will receive maximum rates of assistance under the carbon price Jobs and Competitiveness Program. The government has also, as Senator Payne would know, taken a range of policy initiatives to address housing affordability, with a package of measures to improve competition in the mortgage market, the National Rental Affordability Scheme—which is assisting with the construction of new affordable rental properties—and the Better Cities Regional Program.

There are a lot of claims being made about the impact of pricing carbon. Many of those claims do not stack up in terms of the Treasury economic modelling which was released, which was done by the same people who provided modelling to Mr Costello and Mr Howard and presumably who advised the Howard cabinet when it also adopted a policy of pricing carbon.