Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for her question. Of course, she understands the need for certainty, having been a small business person herself and because she is in touch with her local business community. I think it will amaze people who are watching this parliament today that the Liberal Party, of all political parties, think that business certainty is something to laugh about. They would prefer economic chaos, in their modern incarnation under this Leader of the Opposition. In pricing carbon we will be providing businesses with certainty. We need to convert our economy to a clean energy economy for the future. By world standards, we are very big emitters of carbon pollution—the biggest emitters per capita in the developed world, with 27 tonnes of carbon pollution per person. That is more than the United States and it is significantly more than the per capita emissions of places like China and India.

What we need to do is price carbon to give business certainty. Let me refer to the words of Brad Page, of the Energy Supply Association, who knows about the need for investment in energy generation. People who are genuinely concerned about rising energy costs for Australian families should listen to these words:

Uncertain greenhouse gas emission policy adversely impacts on new energy supply decisions …

An equitable and enduring greenhouse gas emissions price signal is required to promote investor confidence, deliver greenhouse gas abatement and reward the uptake of new low-emission technologies.

Industry is crying out for certainty—crying out for certainty. I look over at the member for Groom because he is a man who, in the past, has talked about the need for business certainty. He said it in the following words—these are the words of the member for Groom:

What I hear from small business is that they want certainty. They want to know where they are going to be in 12 months time.

He also said that they said to him, and this was about the GST:

What we don’t want is roll-back. We do not want roll-back. It will complicate our business. It will mean wholesale changes. It will mean wave after wave of reform.

Never a truer word was spoken about the consequences for businesses if they fear a loss of certainty, if they do not know what is going to happen next. The Leader of the Opposition himself once supported business certainty. In July last year, he said business ‘deserves certainty’. Again in July last year, he said:

… I think what business needs is a period of certainty and stability.

But today he was on morning television, proudly saying in answer to a question about business certainty:

Well, completely up in the air and with no certainty.

That is his vision of the Australian economy.

Let us be very clear about what this loss of business sense of certainty will mean. It will trash Australia’s reputation around the world as a safe place to invest. It will strand investments that people have made on the basis of a carbon price. It will cost jobs. It will rip out of the hands of householders money supplied to them that they are relying on to meet the costs of living. It will leave Australia a poorer place. The right strategy is to ensure we have the clean energy jobs of the future. We will do that by pricing carbon, despite the fear campaign, despite the campaign of uncertainty.

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