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

I say to the Leader of the Opposition, who asked effectively the same question as he asked yesterday, that the facts do not change no matter how much he yells about them. The facts do not change no matter how many times he says no. The facts do not change no matter how relentlessly negative he is. The facts that were the facts yesterday, which we talked about in question time, are the facts today, and they will be the facts tomorrow. No amount of fear campaigning, from an opposition leader who has no policies and consequently only knows how to run fear campaigns and how to say no, will change the facts. The facts will not change just because the Leader of the Opposition is desperate for them to. The facts will not change because of that.

The facts are the same as they were yesterday and, for members of the opposition who were too busy screaming out 'no' to listen to those facts yesterday, the facts are these: the Treasury modelling that the Leader of the Opposition refers to does not make an assumption about the United States of America having a carbon price. The international assumptions in the Treasury modelling are that countries deliver to the low end of their pledges. Australia, to use our own nation as an example, has publicly committed internationally to a minus five per cent target in 2020 unconditionally. The international modelling assumes that countries will deliver to their low-end targets.

Then the Leader of the Opposition comes in once again with this furphy. How many times do we have to listen to this silly fear campaign—this relentless negativity? He insults people around the world who are actually acting on carbon. He insults people around the world who are dealing with carbon pollution. To remind the Leader of the Opposition: President Obama stood in this parliament and verified his clean energy target. California, which if it were a nation unto itself would be amongst the biggest economies in the world, is moving to put a price on carbon. The European Union has a price on carbon. New Zealand has a price on carbon. A number of Chinese provinces will trial a price on carbon, and so the list goes on.

These are the facts, and no amount of twisting and turning by a Leader of the Opposition who is so desperate because he has no policies that he has nothing to say—not one word to say, not one idea in his mind except saying no—will change that. No amount of repetition of these falsehoods will turn them into truths.

I also say to the Leader of the Opposition that some days he has gone out and said that he agrees with our minus five per cent target in 2020. He has on other days gone out and said that he is opposed to the minus five per cent target. I will make a grand assumption that today he is in favour of the minus five per cent target, and I say to the Leader of the Opposition that if he is in favour of the minus five per cent target, why would he impose on Australians the most costly way of doing it? Why would he require Australian families to give him $1,300 to pursue his scheme, which he knows will not work and which will take money from Australian families and give it to big polluters? The Leader of the Opposition's fear campaign will never turn into facts, no matter how often he repeats it.

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