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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As the Leader of the Opposition well knows, even in the words of his question he is continuing his campaign of misleading and generating fear amongst the Australian community. If the Leader of the Opposition today hung out at a fruit and vegetable shop and said to the owners of that shop the words he said to the parliament today, he has done them a great disservice. He has told them an untruth; he has told them something he knew not to be true at the time he said it, and he did it for no other purpose than to further his fear campaign and his political interests. It is not right to go around saying things that are untrue in order to generate fear in the Australian community, and that is what the Leader of the Opposition is doing.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition: we on this side stand for giving businesses, like the one that he went to today, certainty so that they know, as they make the arrangements for their business, what arrangements actually apply so that they can do their business plans with certainty. It seems to me a little interesting that at one point the Leader of the Opposition actually thought certainty was important for businesses. At one point, on 19 July, he was wandering around saying things like, ‘I think businesses deserve certainty,’ and, ‘I think what business needs is a period of certainty and stability.’ The shadow Treasurer said on 21 July:

We now accept the Australian people want certainty and stability out of Canberra.

Now, of course, what is the Leader of the Opposition promising Australian businesses? He said it on morning TV today. He was asked:

Big business is obviously a little concerned, a little confused. Where does it leave them in all of this?

The Leader of the Opposition said:

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

With those words the Leader of the Opposition has named his own campaign—create fear and try to stop a confident nation dealing with the challenges of the future. If his fear campaign fails and we price carbon on 1 July 2012, as I intend to do, then he will go to the next election with a plan to wreck the Australian economy with economic vandalism, a plan to rip away from businesses the certainty that they need, a plan to trash this nation’s reputation in international markets, a plan to render void important investment decisions that Australian businesses have made, a plan to see electricity prices rise and rise because there is no certainty in investment in electricity, a plan to rip out of the hands of households the assistance we have given them, a plan to make sure that hardworking Australians have less money in their purses and their wallets than they have had before, and a plan to destroy Australia—

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