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

In answer to the member's question, firstly, I would be very happy to work with the member to get additional information to the business that he identifies in his electorate because the power figures he has used and the anticipated increase are not right, cannot be right and if the business believes them to be right then clearly it does not have the full information. The figure he used was something like a 50 per cent increase. Of course, that is not right. I would be very happy to work with the member to get accurate information to that business about any cost changes it should expect to see. I would also be very happy to work with the member to make sure the business that he has identified as a manufacturing business is kept informed of the rollout of the more than $1 billion that has been set aside in the carbon pricing package in order to work with manufacturing for a clean technology future. I would be very happy to work with the member to make sure this business gets that information.

The member's question highlights that as a result of many, many months of a fear campaign there are many Australians who are anxious but who do not need to be anxious. They have been given the wrong information by the Leader of the Opposition. They have deliberately had their fear and anxiety stoked by the Leader of the Opposition. Those Australians have heard some of the wild and ridiculous claims made about astronomical increases in prices when the impact on households is less than 1c in the dollar or less than one per cent of CPI.

See this speech in context