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

I thank the member for Dawson for his question. I understand that in communities around the country there is of course concern and anxiety as our nation faces this big reform. That is to be expected. There has been concern and anxiety before major reforms in the past in this nation—for example, floating the dollar, reducing tariffs. These big reforms do cause anxiety but they are also the author of today's prosperity. The member who asked me the question represents in this parliament a tremendously vibrant place on the nation's map with the benefits of the resources boom showing in the communities that he represents, and those waves of contemporary prosperity have been built on the basis of reforms past.

The best thing that the member for Dawson can do, and the best thing that this national parliament can do, for the people that he represents is to seize and address the challenges of the future, like climate change. The most efficient way of tackling climate change is to price carbon. To reject that is to reject the economic advice from all over this nation and around the world. The best way is to get big polluters to pay so that they reduce the amount of carbon pollution they produce and we then use that revenue to assist families in Dawson, to protect jobs and to tackle climate change.

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