Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to update paper No. 6 of the Garnaut Climate Change Review which, at page 26, recommends:

Will the Prime Minister identify the regions that will suffer large-scale loss of jobs as a result of her carbon tax? Do they include Townsville, Mount Isa, Whyalla, Kwinana, Port Pirie, the Illawarra, Gladstone, the Hunter Valley or Geelong?

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

I thank the member for his question and I understand that the member who asked the question would be struggling today. He is a man who wrote a thesis on why an emissions trading scheme and pricing carbon was the most effective way of dealing with carbon pollution. Since then he has sold his soul and pretended that the direct action measures of the Leader of the Opposition can work. Of course, today, the shadow minister opposite has crashed right into this report that verifies that climate change is real and verifies that we cannot take meaningful action on climate change without reducing the amount of carbon pollution. That is, the coalition direct action plan to sequester carbon in various forms is not enough.

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

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The question did not contain any argument at all. It simply asked a very straightforward question to identify regions, which the Garnaut review referred to, with job losses as a result of a carbon price. I would ask you to draw the Prime Minister back to what was the question without any argument.

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

The Prime Minister will respond to the question.

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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. My point in going to this report is that it verifies that climate change is real. It also verifies that to tackle climate change you need to cut carbon pollution and that, so-called, direct action measures are not enough. If you are going to cut carbon pollution the most efficient way to do that is to put a price on carbon. The shadow minister who asked the question actually knows that. Of course, putting a price on carbon does drive a change in our economy. It is meant to drive a change in our economy, as we put a price on carbon businesses that are big polluters then innovate and change to reduce carbon pollution. Of course we want to see carbon pollution reduced and that is what pricing carbon is all about.

We will work with Australian industry and business to protect Australian jobs, which is what the roundtables that the minister for climate change has been running are about, by working directly with Australian industry. In terms of job prospects for the future, what the shadow minister would know if he was being forthright with the parliament is that we cannot afford, in jobs and prosperity of Australians, to have our economy fall behind the standards of the world. There is a reason that we have to transition our economy. If we do not transition our economy we will miss out on the clean energy jobs of the future.

I say to the shadow minister, given his membership of the Liberal Party, that he is probably more likely to look to David Cameron on these questions than he is to any member of the Labor Party, and I would suggest to him that he does. Prime Minister Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom—who, if he were in this country, would be the holder of a Liberal Party ticket—is driving deep cuts in carbon pollution in his economy because of his view that it is positive for the jobs of the future and positive for employment growth in the United Kingdom.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order in respect of relevance. The question related to which regions would suffer large-scale job losses.

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

Order! The Manager of Opposition Business already raised the matter of relevance in what was one of his better constructed points of order, and I would have thought that the member for Flinders would realise that. Again, I say to the whole House that, whilst debate can be directly relevant—and that is not the problem, even though I think there should not be debate in either the question or the answer—I remind the Prime Minister that she must directly relate her response to the question.

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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I was asked about jobs and pricing carbon and I am talking about jobs and pricing carbon. I say to the shadow minister that, rather than go out and politically look for fear in this debate, he should take the same course as conservative Prime Minister David Cameron who is out there with deep cuts to carbon pollution and is saying to the people of the United Kingdom that he supports those changes because he supports responsible government and he supports jobs growth in his economy. The shadow minister should actually be honest with the Australian people about that.

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! I am sure there will be plenty of opportunity down the track to have the debate, but question time is not one of them.

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

Mr Speaker, I ask the Prime Minister to withdraw the inference in the final phrase of her answer to that question—if you can call it an answer—before the parliament moves on.

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

Order! In response to the Manager of Opposition Business, there was nothing at the time that struck me as requiring withdrawal.

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

Mr Speaker, if members of the opposition find the suggestion that they should be honest offensive, I withdraw it.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! I say to the House that it is preferable that the withdrawal is just a withdrawal, but I also indicate to the Manager of Opposition Business that this withdrawal was couched in a similar manner to the withdrawal that he expressed on the last sitting day. I acknowledge that that is not a defence. I remind members that, if they are going to withdraw, they simply withdraw. The member for Greenway has waited patiently and now has the call.