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

I thank the member for Gilmore for her question. To the member for Gilmore I would say this: I am concerned about the cost of living pressures being experienced by the constituents she names. I am concerned about the cost of living pressures being experienced by Australians. But I would also say to the member for Gilmore that when she is discussing cost of living pressures with these constituents or anyone else in her electorate what she needs to explain to them is the following: electricity prices are rising. That is true. In the future we will have further rises in electricity. That will happen under any scenario. If she is in any doubt about that she should discuss the matter with the member for Groom, who has been very forthright about that publicly.

Under Labor’s plan, what will happen for her constituents is that we will price carbon. We will give her constituents fair and generous household assistance. As a Labor government we will provide fair and generous household assistance. What would happen under the alternative plan being advocated by the Leader of the Opposition is that power prices would go up, there would be no household assistance and the Leader of the Opposition would impose on constituents, like the ones that the member for Gilmore names, an additional tax bill of $720 per year.

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