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 the following statement, which I quote: ‘There is no point in imposing a carbon price domestically which results in emissions and production transferring internationally for no environmental gain.’ I ask the Prime Minister: does she agree with that statement?

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

We will wait for the inevitable ‘Aha!’ moment in the supplementary question. Let me be very clear with the Leader of the Opposition about my view. My view is that Australia should not lead the world but we should not be left behind either. We have a high-emissions economy. We cannot afford to be stranded with that high-emissions economy while other nations change and the world changes. There are other nations that are changing; there are other parts of the world changing. Thirty-two other nations have got emissions trading schemes; 10 US states have got emissions trading schemes. The world is changing.

Because we are, by the standards of the developed world, the biggest per capita emitters of carbon pollution, we have got a lot of changing to do. What that means is that we cannot afford to be left behind the world, and to make the amount of change we need is a major transformation and a major amount of change. That means we need to get started, which is why I have determined we will price carbon from 1 July 2012.

To the Leader of the Opposition I say: of course the challenge of climate change is a global challenge; of course it involves more than Australia in meeting this global challenge; and of course we will continue to press in the councils of the world for the world to act on climate change.

But at every point we should act in Australia’s national interest. Australia’s national interest demands that we do not get left behind with a high-pollution economy and that we transform our economy in a measured and sensible way. Pricing carbon from 1 July 2012 will mean we can start that major journey of transformation in a measured and sensible way; whereas, if we leave our high carbon polluting economy unreformed and then the world moves, and then we are left behind, it will be a dramatic shock for the Australian economy to then transform.

My prism is Australia’s national interest. My prism is Australian jobs. My prism is making sure our economy is a clean energy economy of the future. And my confidence is we have seen major economic reforms in this country in the past. They have been opposed at the time, but, when we look at the track record of what those major reforms have achieved, they have given us the prosperous economy we have today. The nation is up to this, the government is up to this and we will get it done.

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

My supplementary question is to the Prime Minister.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition has the call.

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You better see my punch coming.

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

The member for Braddon is warned!

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

Why didn’t the Prime Minister agree with her former climate change minister, Senator Wong, that a carbon tax will see Australian jobs transferred overseas? Why is she frog-marching Australians prematurely into a big, new tax that will raise prices and cost jobs?

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

I think—I am not sure, but I think—the Leader of the Opposition is—

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

Order! The member for Sturt will leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a).

The member for Sturt then left the chamber.

I remind members that there are limitations on what can be said.

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

I am not quite sure, but I think the Leader of the Opposition is attempting to put to me the proposition that Senator Wong was opposed to pricing carbon because she was worried about Australian jobs. I say to anybody who has ever listened to Senator Wong when she held the climate change portfolio, or indeed since she has held the portfolio of minister for finance: in Senator Wong you find someone with a deep understanding about the need to price carbon, a deep understanding about the benefits for the Australian economy and a deep understanding about the benefits for Australian jobs.

I will check the quote used by the Leader of the Opposition, but my experience this week has been that, when quotes are produced by the opposition, the sentence is clipped to give a misleading impression. A direct question to me from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition had that flaw, and it goes as part of a misleading campaign.

On the premise of the Leader of the Opposition’s question about rising prices: it was he in this parliament yesterday who was chiding the government for not giving sufficient information so that you could work out what price rises were going to be. So let us not have any of this hypocrisy from the Leader of the Opposition. Out of his own mouth yesterday, he said to this parliament he was critical of the government because he did not have enough information to know what price rises were going to be, and now, a short 24 hours later, he is back to making figures up and asserting price rises. I say to the Leader of the Opposition—

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

Order! The Prime Minister will direct her remarks to the question.

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

get to grips with the fundamentals of this debate, and the fundamentals of this debate are: climate change is real; it is caused by human activity; we need to reduce carbon pollution. The best way of doing that is to price carbon and where we want to get to is a market emissions based trading system where the price of carbon is set by the market and where the economy has a cap on the amount of pollution it can generate. That is the way forward. The member for Wentworth is very perceptive about these things and the Leader of the Opposition should listen to his advice and the advice of economists around the world. That is the right thing to do.

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

Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the speech of the former climate change minister when she said, ‘Don’t try to lead the world on it.’

Leave not granted.