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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It is a question about legislation passed under the previous government when the Leader of the Opposition was a supporter of an emissions trading scheme, as were all other members of the Howard cabinet. I am very happy to see the Leader of the Opposition take us back to those times when he believed in pricing carbon, when he believed in putting a cap on carbon and when he believed you could weigh and measure carbon pollution—things he apparently does not believe any longer.

The website tracks and makes available information under that legislation. The point we have made publicly is that we cannot then mine and use that dataset for other purposes. Of course, businesses who pay the carbon price will know who those businesses are when the system comes into action on 1 July next year. I view it as remarkable indeed that the Leader of the Opposition is in this parliament asking details about the government's carbon pricing plan when he is unable on most days to tell Australians whether he supports a minus five per cent target or not.

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