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

We are a great trading nation and I understand that the opposition now are engaged in a lot of populist nonsense. For example, we have seen them bring forward a bill which would take us outside of the global trading order with the consequence of retaliatory trade attacks. Somehow they are going to try and justify this to the Australian people. We know that, if we are outside the global rules based trading system and the subject of retaliatory attack, all that will mean is lost jobs for Australians. Now, in the climate change area, they are going down the same path. Yes, it is an internationally linked scheme, because that is the lowest cost abatement for the Australian economy and we want to make sure we transform our economy at the lowest cost. Because you have determined not to have an internationally linked scheme, your already excessively costly polluters subsidy policy has moved from a per household cost —

Opposition members interjecting—

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