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

I do welcome the question and I am pleased to be fought over. I am asked about what would disadvantage Australia, and I make the point that continued uncertainty when it comes to carbon pricing would disadvantage this country. It would continue to delay that move by investors to invest in clean energy, to invest in low-pollution ways of doing business. We on this side have our eyes firmly fixed on the future. We understand that you cannot be a first-rate economy unless you are also a clean energy economy—something John Howard understood but something the current Liberal Party have forgotten.

It is the case that our policy does include a price floor which acts as a safety valve for investors in low-emissions technology by establishing a minimum price for the first few years of a flexible price period. But I also make this point: if the opposition are so concerned about the level of a carbon price, perhaps they would like to tell us and the Australian people why they support a policy which would impose a carbon price over double what the government is proposing. Treasury analysis says your policy will cost more than double per tonne of carbon than what the government is proposing. You come in here and you talk about a carbon price—you say you worry about it—but you are busy seeking, should you win government, to implement a policy which would cost business more and Australian families more. (Time expired)