Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am not going to spend too much time talking about climate change and its effects on our country. All I will say is that climate change is real, which is why we have a plan to tackle it. Although the Leader of the Opposition himself, in one of his 'united states of Tony' moments, believes climate change is crap, he still has a plan to reduce emissions, albeit a plan that will hurt Australian families and damage the Australian economy just to help the big polluters—but we will get onto that a bit later.

Australia produces around 500 million tonnes of carbon pollution each year, making us one of the top polluters in the world—even more per person than the United States of America. Currently Australia's biggest polluters create and release pollution into our atmosphere for free, despite the fact that it is damaging our environment. A carbon price changes that. The top 500 polluters in Australia will have to pay a price for every tonne of carbon pollution they create and release into the atmosphere. This, in turn, will create incentives to reduce pollution in the cheapest possible way, by encouraging big polluters to invest in cleaner ways to do business. It will help build the clean energy future our country deserves and our kids are entitled to.

Labor will cut pollution by making the big polluters pay and every cent raised will go to Australian households, Australian jobs and securing a clean energy future for our country, our kids and our grandkids. That is a fact. Pricing carbon will provide new economic opportunities for Australian workers, with opportunities to open up in existing industries as they invest in new technologies to generate less pollution. Jobs will also be created in new industries such as renewable energy, carbon farming and sustainable design. These new industries will strengthen our economy as well as improve our international competitiveness.

With tax cuts and the raising of the tax free threshold we will boost incentives for people to get to work. We will see about 500,000 new jobs created in the next two years and 1.6 million Australian jobs created by 2020. This builds on our record—Labor's record—of creating 750,000 jobs since we came to office, as opposed to those opposite, who would have ripped the guts out of the Australian workforce and left 250,000 Australians out of work during the GFC. What they do is a disgrace.

Labor's plan to make the big polluters pay for the pollution they create and dump into our atmosphere will ensure that Australians are supported. Nine out of 10 households will receive financial benefit through tax cuts and/or payment increases. By making the big polluters pay for their pollution, we are able to provide Australian families with tax cuts. This builds on our tax cuts across the board for three years in a row since we have been in government. The average Australian wage earner is already paying $1,000 less income tax than they were three years ago.

Under the Gillard Labor government's plan, pensioners will receive an extra $338 per year if they are single and $510 per year for couples combined. Families will receive household assistance through their family assistance payments: up to $110 per eligible child for families receiving family tax benefit A and up to $69 per year in assistance for families receiving family tax benefit B. Eligible self-funded retirees will receive an extra $338 per year in assistance for singles and $510 per year for couples combined. Eligible single parents will receive $289 per year. Students will get an extra $177 per year. On top of all this, all Australians earning up to $80,000 get a tax cut. For most people it will be around $300. The tax free threshold will also triple, so nobody will have to pay tax on the first $20,000 that they earn. That means that half a million people go from having to pay tax to paying no tax, and a total of one million people will no longer have to submit a tax return.

The world is acting to tackle climate change and we refuse to allow Australia to be locked into a polluted economy and environment, in turn deterring investment, competitiveness and business in Australia. We have seen this already, directly, through the actions of the Victorian Liberal government, who have wiped out the wind industry and wiped out renewable energy. We are watching jobs and manufacturing leave Victoria purely because of the Luddite attitude of those opposite. The Liberal Party quite simply just do not understand the environment, economics or manufacturing. They fake 'We are the workers friend' but the first thing that they do when it comes to workers is say: 'The economy is a little bit shaky. What is the best thing to do? Cut worker's wages, cut worker's conditions and cut families' safety.' That is the first thing that they do; it is their answer to everything: cut, cut, slash, slash. That is all they can do.

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