Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition now mentions the false accusation that she made in question time based on a false story that appeared in the West Australian about the government’s intentions in relation to contributions from Australia to any green climate fund, being the fund that was negotiated and is in the process of being established following the agreement reached at Cancun in December last year. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition well knows that the document she was quoting from was a United Nations document produced by a task group assembled by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in which a number of individuals participated. One of them was Bob McMullan, not in his formal capacity as a parliamentary secretary because he had retired from that position and had retired from the parliament. I would ask for the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, if she is going to raise this again, to actually read the document and to stop making false accusations about where funds will go.

As I said, we have a disgraceful scare campaign by all of the opposition members who have spoken thus far today and, indeed, since Thursday. It consists of making up figures, taking quotes out of context and failing to recognise that what has been announced is the framework for the carbon price—in other words, the mechanism. It is what has thus far been discussed, and agreement has been reached on, by the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee.

We know on this side of the House that a carbon price will cut pollution and drive investment in clean energy. We know on this side of the House that a carbon price is the cheapest and fairest way to reduce pollution and invest in clean energy. And as a Labor government we will always support those who need help to meet an increase in their cost of living, especially pensioners and especially the most vulnerable. We have announced that a carbon price could start, if agreement on all of the details is reached and legislation is passed, by 1 July 2012.

We have announced that the mechanism that we favour, and that some level of agreement has been reached on in the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, is a market mechanism commencing with a fixed price for a specified period of three to five years. The clear intent is that, following this fixed price period, there will be a smooth transition to an emissions trading scheme. As the opposition well knows, although you would not know it from the scare campaign that they have mounted, detailed issues including the starting price, the length of the fixed price period, and assistance arrangements for households, communities and industries are to be dealt with in subsequent discussions.

We have had, from the opposition, no recognition of the state of the parliament, no recognition of the fact that, for every single piece of legislation that comes before this House—and indeed through the Senate—there needs to be negotiation of the terms of the legislation and agreement reached for the legislation to get passage. The way in which the government has proceeded since the election is to work through a process of negotiation and agreement on a carbon price mechanism, which will be the subject of legislation. In that way, there will be certainty for business and for the Australian community.

The opposition would recognise that if they were concerned about economic matters at all. It is patently obvious that they are not; it is patently obvious that all the opposition is interested in is drumming up fear and confusion about what role a carbon price is going to play in the Australian economy and about the need for a carbon price to push the Australian economy in the direction it needs to go—the direction of becoming a low-carbon economy.

The Leader of the Opposition has continued to make up numbers—he has massive form for making up the numbers on the back of a cigarette packet and spruiking them as fact. In the wake of the election campaign, honourable members will remember, we saw a gaping black hole in the coalition’s election costings of some $11 billion. With a little bit of smoke and a few strategically placed mirrors, they summoned it from nowhere. You would think that, after having an $11 billion hole in your costings, and with that sort of thing having happened in the past, you might have learnt something, but not the Leader of the Opposition.

He again rolled out the smoke machine at a petrol pump in Western Sydney—you can expect him at petrol pumps near you!—and, another media photo opportunity, at a bus depot in Queanbeyan, which the Sydney Morning Herald described in these terms:

Abbott donned a fluoro safety vest. He filled the petrol tank of a bus. He back-slapped workers (one of whom called him ‘‘Mr Costello’’. Awkward.)

It is awkward, because the Leader of the Opposition is not Peter Costello. The Leader of the Opposition entirely lacks the economic credibility of Peter Costello—he has none. He demonstrates it every time he opens his mouth on the subject. Imagine the surprise of the lucky drivers on Sunday, who had the Leader of the Opposition leaning into their car windows, petrol pump in hand and cameras in tow, telling them that they would pay exactly 6.5c extra per litre at the bowser. Today’s effort was at the Queanbeyan fruit shop; the Leader of the Opposition seems to think he is back on the campaign trail. The AAP reported:

At the Queanbeyan fruit shop, Mr Abbott brushed aside the idea of an assistance package for households, saying: ‘It sort of defeats the purpose of making everything more expensive and it creates this giant money-go-round’.

That is showing how little Mr Abbott grasps of economics—that is the sort of incredible economics we are getting from the Leader of the Opposition.

As any of the people in this parliament involved in the serious negotiations on the carbon price mechanism could tell him, we have not set out what the carbon price is going to be—nor have we set out what the level of assistance is going to be.

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