Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. He stood in front of pensioners—in one of the most gutless things you could ever do—terrifying them, with no sound basis for doing so. And now that the carbon price has been in for six weeks, what are we finding? Every single claim is wrong. The destruction of the coal industry—wrong, false and deceitful. The loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs—wrong, false and deceitful. The impact on electricity prices—wrong, false and deceitful. The Leader of the Opposition sat there and watched electricity prices go up by an average of 50 per cent over the last three years and another eight or nine per cent due to network costs in each jurisdiction around the country this year—and that is not the end of the world.

They falsely attribute electricity price increases all to carbon. Every single claim that the Leader of the Opposition has made in relation to this issue is false, deceitful and cannot be relied upon. It is the most pure political opportunism that you could possibly imagine. Every living Liberal Party leader, including the member for Warringah, has supported carbon pricing. It is right for this country and that is why the Leader of the Opposition, who thinks he has got the next election in the bag, cannot and will not repeal it—and that is the most fraudulent claim of his of all.

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