David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton for his question. The carbon price will cut greenhouse gas emissions to help tackle climate change and will drive investment in clean energy so that we can build a stronger economy for the future. We all know that the impact of the carbon price will be approximately 0.7 per cent on prices on average. That means that prices will go up on average by less than 1c in the dollar. Power prices are expected to go up by around $3.30 per week on average, but we are providing households with assistance of up to $10.10 per week on average in the form of increases in family payments, increases in pensions and tax cuts.

We know that there has been a lot of misleading information disseminated about the carbon price. That is why we have provided the ACCC with $12.8 million to protect households and small businesses from people who jack up their prices and falsely blame those price rises on the carbon price. Customers and small businesses who have any concerns in relation to pricing can contact the ACCC. We have established a new hotline. We know that most businesses will do the right thing, but those businesses who do not will have to face the ACCC.

While the government is out there trying to crack down on misleading claims, the Leader of the Opposition is out there giving the green light to businesses to jack up their prices and to falsely blame the carbon price. I see that in the last couple of days the Leader of the Opposition has written a letter to businesses and he has enclosed one of his dodgy Liberal Party pamphlets. This particular pamphlet—

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