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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for again confirming that he now recognises that nations around the world are putting a price on carbon.

What he does not seem to be realising is that he is shooting down one of the principal argument he has used publicly against carbon pricing. He has been out in the Australian community saying, 'Australia shouldn't go it alone; no-one else is doing this,' and then he comes into this chamber and asks about other people's prices.

But the hypocrisy does not end there, because, under the government scheme, as we move to an emission trading scheme Australian businesses will be paying the world price—no more, no less. That is why we are doing things like linking our scheme to the scheme in the European Union.

Who is opposed to that? Who is opposed to international linking? Who is opposed to Australian businesses having the benefits of the world price? The Leader of the Opposition is! It is specifically ruled out in his sham statements about so-called 'direct action', because this is a policy that does not make any sense and would certainly impose more costs on the Australian nation.

Every reputable person who has looked at the Leader of the Opposition's plan has dismissed it as nonsense. It is the kind of policy you cobble together when you have been running a fear campaign and then you are not sure what to do next. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that he would be better advised to adopt the position he clearly had when he was a minister in the Howard government—that is, a position of putting a price on carbon.

This is weathervane politics which is not in the national interest, not in the interests of Australian businesses, not in the interests of jobs and not in the interests of a clean energy future. All of this should be abandoned by the Leader of the Opposition. He should have the decency to do what Prime Minister Howard did and endorse carbon pricing.

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