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

I can confirm that petrol will not have a price impact from pricing carbon and consequently petrol will be cheaper than it would otherwise have been if we had put a direct carbon price on petrol. Australian households, despite the fear campaign from the Leader of the Opposition, will not see extra cents per litre when they go and buy petrol as a result of us pricing carbon, so it is good for Australian families and good for Australian households, and I am really quite surprised the Leader of the Opposition would be recommending anything else.

As for costs of abatement throughout the scheme, economists tell us, and of course they are right, that pricing carbon gets you the lowest cost abatement, and that is what the government is determined to do. The Leader of the Opposition, in contrast, is wedded to his grossly inefficient and costly scheme which would give us far higher costs of abatement per tonne, putting an extra burden on Australian families. And we can put a dollar figure on that burden: it is $720 per year.

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