Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to Labor national executive member Paul Howes’s statement that it is ‘a rubbish argument’ to claim that a carbon price will not push up electricity costs. Paul Howes said, ‘The whole point of putting a price on carbon is to make things more expensive so we do not use them.’ I ask the Prime Minister, isn’t her claim that a new tax on electricity will not push up prices further evidence that she has lost her way and also that she has lost her grip on what happens in the real world?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. That was clearly out of order under standing order 100(d).

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

I will allow the question.

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

Paul Howes and many people have views on the climate change debate. I have my views. I have my views about the operation of the electricity market. I have my views about the need to ensure that we price carbon to drive a fuel switch. I have my views about how we best enable innovation in the sector and the competitiveness of renewable energy. If the Leader of the Opposition had been paying any attention in question time yesterday then he would know that I actually answered a question directly on this point and I refer him to that answer. I also refer him to my speeches on the topic so that he can get more detail.

What I can say to the Leader of the Opposition about how people form their views about carbon pricing is that people work through this issue and think about it. I think there is only one person in this debate who has ever been described as a weather vane on climate change. Of course, that description was by the member for Wentworth of the Leader of the Opposition when he recorded that:

Tony himself has, in just four or five months, publicly advocated the blocking of the ETS, the passing of the ETS, the amending of the ETS and, if the amendments were satisfactory, passing it, and now the blocking of it.

His only redeeming virtue in this remarkable lack of conviction is that every time he announced a new position to me he would preface it with ‘Mate, mate, I know I am a bit of a weather vane on this, but …’

There is only one person in this debate who is a weather vane, and that is the man who asked the question.