Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. When will the Prime Minister stop watching the price of petrol go up and start doing something about it?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the things which presented itself as I ran through some of the transcripts of the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Flinders today, speaking on what to do about the price of fuel and about climate change, was the issue of greater reliance on fuel-efficient cars. That is part of their policy. On that we have acted. You asked what specific action we have taken. We, through industry policy in cooperation with Toyota, will now have for the first time a hybrid car manufactured in this country. We believe in manufacturing policy; those opposite do not. That is one step forward.

Secondly, we have the Building Australia Fund to invest in public transport. That is a policy on our part not on the part of those opposite. Thirdly, in supporting working families and pensioners and carers, we have a $55 billion income support package in the budget. For a typical young family this will mean $52 a week, against the $2.50 per week offered by the policy of those opposite on the question of excise—that is, depending on whether it is the Leader of the Opposition’s policy; the member for Wentworth’s policy, which is to oppose it; the member for Aston’s policy, which is to double it; or the Leader of the National Party’s policy, which is to quadruple it. And we do not know which policy currently stands.

So whether it is in terms of direct income support, investment in fuel-efficient cars, acting responsibly on the future of public transport or doing the right thing in the long term on climate change and emissions trading this is the right group of policy settings for Australia—as opposed to those opposite, who have embarked on one thing and one thing alone: a fear campaign, a scare campaign. They will say anything and do anything to grab a headline in tomorrow’s newspapers.