Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We are going about this in the Labor way. We are going about this by providing assistance for households. Nine in 10 households will receive a combination of tax cuts and increased payments to help with the cost of living. We will provide transitional assistance to industry.

So what does the Leader of the Opposition do in the face of everything that the scientists are saying, everything that the economists are saying, everything that senior corporate leaders are saying? He simply ignores the scientists and prefers to take the advice of Lord Monckton. Nothing more could demon­strate what a climate change sceptic he is than that fact. When he got on the wrong side of this, he decided last week when he was at the economics conference in Melbourne to start attacking all of the economists who agree with pricing carbon.

We know something about this Leader of the Opposition: he just likes to come out swinging all of the time and he does not care who he hits. Last week he started taking it out on leading Australian economists who had the temerity to argue for a price on carbon. So he ignores business, he ignores economists and we saw in the House last week and again today that he is going to ignore his own plebiscite. He will not take any notice of business, he will not take any notice of economists and he will not take any notice of scientists. All this just shows how dangerous and unfit for high office he is.

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