Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, I refer you to the New South Wales government analysis showing that households will pay an extra $300 a year for electricity if a carbon tax is introduced. For pensioners this will mean that the recent pension increase is largely taken up by higher electricity bills. Does the Prime Minister stand by her previous promises to ease cost of living pressures, and if so will she now abandon her government’s plans for a carbon tax?

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

I thank the member for Gilmore for her question. First and foremost, pensioners have had a historic rise in the pension as the result of the actions of this government. I pay tribute to the relevant minister, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, for her making that decision, which has assisted pensioners around the country. Undoubtedly many older Australians, many Australians on limited and fixed incomes, still find it very, very difficult to make ends meet. I understand that.

Electricity prices, power prices, place a particular burden on people. I understand the member for Gilmore would be concerned about this but I would ask her to recognise that experts in the field, whether it is TRUenergy or others in the energy sector, are telling us that one of the factors that puts great upward pressure on electricity prices is the lack of investment in new power generation. That lack of investment in new power generation is occurring because of a lack of certainty by industry about what will happen with carbon pricing. So for as long as industry is uncertain we will see this lack of investment, and it is this lack of investment that puts upward pressure on electricity prices.

This really is a matter of common sense. We are talking about multibillion dollar investments and consequently people want certainty. In the election campaign the member for Gilmore may have seen that the government committed itself to introducing mandatory standards for electricity generation in relation to the future of power stations. We do not want to see in the future new power stations constructed that are high carbon emitters; we do not want to see new dirty coal fired power stations constructed. We will work in consultation with industry to set the standard that will be there for the future and that will give some certainty to industry as they invest.

Beyond that, industry is asking us to address the question of carbon pricing. The government has set about doing that through the multiparty committee working in a collaborative way to look at options for pricing carbon. If the member for Gilmore is seriously concerned about these questions, and I accept in good faith that she is, then the best thing for her to do would be to seek to persuade her party leader, the Leader of the Opposition, to become involved in the process and to go back to the version of the Leader of the Opposition that existed on 2 October last year. He has just got to take himself back 12 months to when he believed in pricing carbon. If he believed in pricing carbon then, there is no reason he should not believe in it now and be involved in this process.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Prime Minister will resume her seat.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has resumed her seat.

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

Ms Gillard interjecting

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You sat down because you’re so hopeless.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt will leave the chamber for one hour.

The member for Sturt then left the chamber.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If those on my left need an explanation, the record can show—and I will take the consequences—that yes, there was an element that I sat the Prime Minister down for, but that does not allow somebody without the call to stand at the despatch box and throw endearments across the table.