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

To the Deputy Leader of the Opposition's question: I remember the time that Premier Barnett in Western Australia was making positive statements about emissions trading. That would have been the same time that the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition were making positive statements about putting a price on carbon. In Western Australia, as I understand it, the Leader of the Opposition has been saying to the Premier of Western Australia that he is concerned about the large-scale electricity price rises that are being imposed on the Western Australian people because of actions of the Barnett government. The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia has been making the point that Premier Barnett today, even though he has made positive statements in the past about emissions trading and as I understand it went to see an Al Gore speech when Al Gore was here a number of years ago, has now, like the Leader of the Opposition himself, changed his position. The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia has been making the point that it is one thing for Premier Barnett to criticise the federal government when the federal government is providing extensive assistance to households; it is another thing for Premier Barnett to answer up to the fact that he is rapidly increasing electricity prices for the people of Western Australia—nothing to do with carbon price but all about the actions of the state government in Western Australia—and he, Premier Barnett, is not offering families effective assistance. That is the point of the Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia, and I can well and truly understand why he is making it—

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