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

I did not want them to be able to be unfairly sacked for no reason at all. So we have acted to work with truck drivers on their terms and conditions. Of course, many of them are owner-drivers not employees, and we have worked constructively with the Transport Workers Union on issues associated with owner-drivers and we will continue to do so.

On the member's question about carbon pricing, can I suggest to the member that he study the details on Sunday when the full details of carbon pricing are released. He has asked me why I am pricing carbon. The answer to why is: I accept the science; I accept that our climate is changing; I accept that it is caused by human activity; I accept that means that we need to cut carbon pollution; and I accept the economic advice that the best way to do that is by putting a price on carbon—that is, on the economics of the proposition I accept the same propositions that Prime Minister John Howard did, that the Leader of the Opposition did when he sat in Prime Minister Howard's cabinet and which he has accepted on many occasions since but no longer accepts now. I certainly believe that system—

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