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

The opposition leader in his heart of hearts is a believer in a price on carbon. He stood on an election ticket to do it. He has talked of it approvingly on more than one occasion. But, of course, what the Leader of the Opposition has done is embark on a political campaign firstly to depose the member for Wentworth as Leader of the Opposition and then, in the absence of any ideas during the period that he has been Leader of the Opposition, to try and create a campaign for political profit. But the Leader of the Opposition's campaign is going to come to a shuddering halt, because the days of just going out there and making it up are coming to an end. Australians are a common-sense people. Even in days when they have been worried about big reforms in the past—whether it was floating the dollar, universal superannuation or Mabo and native title—Australians ultimately ended up judging from their own experiences. They ended up living it. They ended up forming their own judgments based on how they lived the experience. And, from 1 July, Australians will be able to live that experience. They will be able to go to the shops like Coles and Woolworths, and the prices will not have increased on 1 July. They will get their pay packet and they will see a tax cut. For some, they will move from paying tax to no tax. Think about the power of that: money that you worked hard for used to go to the tax man and now none of it goes to the tax man. You get to keep it all and to spend it on your family. Pensioners are seeing increases. There are increases in family payments.

And then, importantly, our nation will see a transformation to a clean energy future. Australians who have often looked up into our beautiful sky and seen the power of our sunshine and have asked themselves the question, 'Why don't we use that great solar resource?' will be able to see the development of a clean energy future. Australians who want to bequeath a planet to future generations with less carbon pollution will be able to know that their nation is taking the appropriate steps to achieve that. Our nation will be able to stand in the councils of the world alongside other nations who have priced carbon pollution, as our world works towards addressing this global challenge of climate change.

Whilst all of that happens the Leader of the Opposition will be out there with his tortured analogies—with his 'python' and his 'cobra' and his 'wrecking ball'—trying to explain to the Australian people why, month after month, day after day, he has misled them while, month after month, day after day, he has made false claims. I am looking forward to the return of this parliament after the start of carbon pricing, when the Leader of the Opposition's claims will have been proven to be hollow. What will the Leader of the Opposition say then? Well, I hope that he is man enough to apologise for the kind of reckless, destructive, aggressive, negative campaign he has run in the months in between, but I will not be holding my breath on that.

In the meantime, apart from delivering these nation-changing reforms, we will keep the economy strong, we will manage it in the interests of working people, we will continue to improve our hospitals, we will continue to improve our schools, we will treat our older generation with respect, and we will look after Australia's children with new policies to support them and their education. The Leader of the Opposition will be mired in his negativity, in his aggression and in his bitterness. In the meantime, we will keep leading the nation, leading it to a stronger and fairer future, because we are a Labor government and that is the Labor way.

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