Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Cormann for his continued interest in the price of carbon. The EU—and I think this is worth reminding those opposite—was the first international carbon market in the world and is now one of the largest. It has operated for nearly a decade and, quite frankly, it has delivered on cost-effective emissions reductions and its trading with other credible trading systems, such as Australia, is in our national interest because it will help reduce emissions at the lowest cost. So it is the trading of those credits that will then drive lower cost outcomes. So it will benefit industry. It will be available for industry to pick up on. In fact, if you look at the EU as a block, it is one of our largest trading partners and accounts for over $90 billion in two-way trade. From 2015 that trade relationship will include carbon as well. Australia will have the same carbon price then as 30 other countries with a combined population of 530 million. The start of the linked emissions trading scheme is still over 2½ years away, and the assumptions in the Treasury modelling about linked carbon markets and international action have not changed. The Leader of the Opposition, though, would like you to believe that the carbon price will increase at an unimaginable rate but also drop to below the price floor and impact the budget. The Treasury was proved right on the $3.30 per week impact of the carbon price on electricity, and a large number of other reports which have made the front pages— (Time expired)