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

I understand that Australian families have legitimate concerns about job security. There is nothing more important to people than having the benefits of work. Consequently, I will be explaining to them how the carbon pricing package will protect Australian jobs today and ensure that our nation is prosperous and has the benefits of a clean-energy future.

I will of course be speaking to Australians about any issue they want to raise with me. I suspect that they will want to raise issues with me about what was said during the election campaign, and I will be happy to answer their questions. I will be happy to explain to them that the carbon tax is temporary and that the emissions trading scheme is permanent. I will be happy to explain to them that I always wanted to achieve an emissions trading scheme for this nation, and we will. I will be happy to explain to them that we have got there via a different route than the one I foresaw at the election campaign, but we will seize that clean-energy future.

I will be explaining to them that the Leader of the Opposition was a member of the Howard cabinet that authorised an emissions trading scheme. I will be explaining to them that the Leader of the Opposition has been in favour of an emissions trading scheme and in favour of a carbon tax. I will be explaining to them that he is now opposed to a carbon tax and he is now opposed to an emissions trading scheme. I will be explaining to them that that is not leadership. Leadership is about saying to the country that we have to chart the best course for the future. Leadership is about saying to the country that there are difficult things we need to do in order to do the right thing by our environment and by our economy for the future.

I will be saying to the country that, as a nation, as a people we are up to doing this together. The time to do it is now. Our economy is strong, and while our economy is strong is the right time to be addressing a major reform. Nothing hard gets easier because you leave it in the too-hard basket, so I will be explaining to them that, as Prime Minister, I intend to lead this nation through this difficult reform. It will strengthen us for the future and we will get it done.

See this speech in context