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

The next two words I was going to say were two 'key assumptions'. So the answer is as follows. The answer remains as it has always been. The facts are the facts, and no amount of negative campaigning from people without policies changes the facts. And the facts are as follows. The Treasury modelling makes two key assumptions about international action: first, that countries meet their low-end pollution reduction targets for 2020; second, that countries have access to international abatement. Looking at the meaning of those assumptions in the world in which we live—looking at Australia, for example, where we have given a pledge of minus five per cent in 2020—we are assuming that there is an effort that countries do meet the low end of their targets. We are also assuming that there is access to international abatement, and there is access to international abatement. That is because other places in the world have carbon pricing schemes to which you can internationally link.

They are the assumptions in the modelling. On day 2 of question time every question is based on a wrong premise. That is what happens when you have no policies and no plans. And there you are, trying to conjure, to continue a fear campaign. That is what you get reduced to.

See this speech in context