Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to his remarks in the House yesterday on the carbon price:

We will use every cent from that price paid to assist households and to assist industry.

Treasurer, is it not a fact that the government has committed to paying a proportion of the carbon tax revenue to the United Nations Green Climate Fund? How does the Treasurer reconcile that fact with his statement to the House yesterday?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. She obviously has a deep desire to be the shadow Treasurer, but I am not sure that is going to happen any time soon.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order!

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have had a series of questions in this House which have sought to distort what Professor Garnaut has had to say and to distort what others have had to say.

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You said it! You said it yesterday!

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

The member for Cowan is warned!

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I make no apology for the fact that we are going to use the revenue raised from the 1,000 largest polluters in our economy to give back and assist households and other climate change programs, and I have said that consistently. I have said it in terms of industry, said it in terms of renewable energy, said it in terms of all our responsibilities. Yet again, this is simply part of the scare campaign that those opposite are running because they do not have any alternative policy framework whatsoever.

We on this side of the House will concentrate on getting the fundamentals right in our economy and for the future. We will put our hand up to do the difficult things that are required in the economy to support jobs and to reduce carbon pollution. Those on that side of the House will just continue to be negative, with no alternative policy whatsoever. For them to come into this House and claim that they have got some knowledge or some expertise is simply incredible. They have come into the House and described the global financial crisis as a hiccup. They have come into this House and said there was another hiccup—

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

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. He was asked how he reconciled a comment yesterday with the facts. He has shown that he cannot reconcile it. Now he should sit down. He is merely engaging in rhetoric.

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

The Treasurer will relate his material directly to the question.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I certainly will, because we on this side of the House will concentrate on getting the big economic calls right. That is what we will concentrate on. We will have no part of the negative strategy that those opposite are following. We will get the big calls right, as we did during the global financial crisis, as we did when the floods hit Queensland and as is required with reducing carbon pollution.