Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to briefly address the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Amendment (Household Assistance) Bill 2009. It is an extremely important bill and I think that in the general debate about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme it has not received as much attention as it demands. The introduction of a carbon price in the economy, through the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, is modelled to achieve an outcome that there is a carbon price and it will mean that there will be some increases in electricity prices. This bill has been formulated by the government as, and was foreshadowed in the white paper as being, a bill that would deliver significant household compensation to low- and middle-income earners in particular.

I wish to place on record the appreciation of the Minister for Climate Change and Water and my appreciation, in my capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, for the work that the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Hon. Jenny Macklin, and her department have put into this bill. In fact, the Hon. Jenny Macklin was the minister who introduced this bill. As I said, it is an extremely important one because its purpose is to ensure that low- and middle-income households in particular are protected during the process of change envisaged by the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and compensated for any of the increases that will flow through as a consequence of having a carbon price in the economy.

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