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

The Manager of Opposition Business is calling away. He might learn something. We believe climate change is real: fact No. 1. That is why we wanted to do it. Fact No. 2: we believe it is caused by human activity. Fact No. 3: we believe that we should get our economy ready for the future and reduce the carbon pollution generated by our economy. We looked around the world and saw other nations doing precisely that. Then of course is the fact that the Leader of the Opposition always finds the most deeply uncomfortable: the cheapest way of reducing the amount of carbon pollution that your economy generates is to put a price on carbon. Leading conservatives around the world know that. Former Prime Minister Howard knew that. The Leader of the Opposition sat in a cabinet that knew that, because they went to the 2007 election saying that they would bring a price on carbon pollution, an emissions-trading scheme, to Australia.

None of those facts have changed. What has changed is that the Leader of the Opposition decided to ditch the facts and play the politics. On this side of the parliament we have always believed in those facts. We have always believed that the most effective way of reducing carbon pollution and the cheapest way of reducing carbon was to put a price on carbon. The Leader of the Opposition will never be able to say to the Australian people that he stands for a cheaper plan than ours. He does not, and that is why we will defend this plan up to and including at the next election and in the days beyond, because it is right for the country.

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