George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to a recent Galaxy poll that found that 73 per cent of voters in Queensland mining regions, including those in Dawson, are against the carbon tax and that 83 per cent of those same voters believe it will make them worse off. The Prime Minister promised before the election date:

There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

Why won't she now allow the people of Dawson and the rest of Australia have their say by holding a plebiscite?

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

I thank the member for Dawson for his question. I understand that in communities around the country there is of course concern and anxiety as our nation faces this big reform. That is to be expected. There has been concern and anxiety before major reforms in the past in this nation—for example, floating the dollar, reducing tariffs. These big reforms do cause anxiety but they are also the author of today's prosperity. The member who asked me the question represents in this parliament a tremendously vibrant place on the nation's map with the benefits of the resources boom showing in the communities that he represents, and those waves of contemporary prosperity have been built on the basis of reforms past.

The best thing that the member for Dawson can do, and the best thing that this national parliament can do, for the people that he represents is to seize and address the challenges of the future, like climate change. The most efficient way of tackling climate change is to price carbon. To reject that is to reject the economic advice from all over this nation and around the world. The best way is to get big polluters to pay so that they reduce the amount of carbon pollution they produce and we then use that revenue to assist families in Dawson, to protect jobs and to tackle climate change.

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

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the Prime Minister was asked whether she would give the people a vote on a carbon tax. She is doing everything other than answer the question. I would ask you to bring her back to direct relevance.

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

The Prime Minister has the call.

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

I say to the member for Dawson, who asked the question: the best way of cutting carbon pollution is to price carbon. The member for Dawson may want to talk to his constituents about whether they would prefer a scheme where they, the families of Dawson, pay and the money is used to give to big polluters. Before the member for Dawson too forcefully endorses the stunt of the Leader of the Opposition, he may want to go and speak to families in his electorate as to whether they think $80 million would be best spent on a political stunt or $80 million would be best spent on schools and hospitals and assistance for older Australians.

I am sure the member for Dawson will be interested to have those conversations in his community. I doubt he will get too many people who say to him, 'I am very happy to see $80 million wasted on a political stunt,' which the Leader of the Opposition himself has said he would pay no regard to in any event. This is a political stunt, pure and simple, and shrill catcalling in favour of it does not change the character of it. It is a shrill political stunt—nothing more, nothing less.

Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How are other countries moving ahead with pricing carbon emissions? How is Australia investing in renewable energy and what are the costs of delay?

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

I thank the member for La Trobe for her question and for her concern about tackling climate change here in this parliament on behalf of her constituents. Yesterday Prime Minister Key from New Zealand came to Canberra and he proved something that can often be forgotten in this House of Representatives, which is that it is possible to be a conservative and to have policies and plans for your nation's future. It is actually possible to do that. We do not see any evidence of that on the opposition frontbench. The Prime Minister of New Zealand came to Canberra yesterday and demonstrated that it is possible to be a conservative and to have plans for the future. It is possible to be a conservative and to be up to tackling the challenge of climate change. New Zealand is tackling the challenge of climate change by pricing carbon.

Mr Robb interjecting—

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

The member for Goldstein!

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

As fond as we are of our family in New Zealand, I do not believe that self-respecting Australians want to see New Zealand up to doing something that we do not do.

Mr Robb interjecting—

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

The member for Goldstein is warned.

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

I believe that we are confident and creative people. We are very fond of our New Zealand friends, but we are up to doing the same measures that they have done to deal with climate change and that means pricing carbon. I do not want to see our nation stand idle while the world passes us by and deals with a clean energy future. I certainly do not want to see New Zealand get in front of us, which is why we need to move to price carbon. Pricing carbon will accelerate our embrace of a clean energy future. What will that mean? On the weekend, I had the opportunity with the relevant minister, Minister Ferguson, to see what that would mean in the electorate of Newcastle and beyond. We saw, for example, the solar thermal technology at the CSIRO in Newcastle using the power of the sun to generate the energy we need for the future. The government were very pleased and very proud to be able to announce that we will support major solar developments in Queensland near Chinchilla and in New South Wales in Moree, new solar developments that will get us the clean energy of the future. Pricing carbon is all about accelerating these clean energy developments.

It ultimately comes down to a choice. It is a choice that needs to be made by leaders on behalf of the nation, the kind of policy choice that leaders need to confront. Do you believe climate change is real? I do, and the Leader of the Opposition does not. Do you believe that we need to cut carbon pollution? I do, and the Leader of the Opposition does not. Do you believe we should do that in the most efficient way that we can? I do, and the Leader of the Opposition does not. Do you believe that big polluters should bear the price? I do, and the Leader of the Opposition does not. Do you believe we should assist Australian families? I do, and the Leader of the Opposition does not.

Opposition members interjecting—

The Leader of the Opposition stands for taking money from Australian families and giving it to big polluters. That is the difference.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I expect the Chief Opposition Whip to show an example. I cannot believe it. If so many members are so disengaged from what is going on, please do me a favour and leave. There is an expectation, if you are remaining in the chamber, that you sit there quietly.

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to research released yesterday from Deloitte Access Economics which has found that, on top of the already forecast doubling of electricity prices from transmission and distribution cost increases, the introduction of her carbon tax will then again more than double the wholesale electricity price by 2020. Given that the Prime Minister has refused to give the people a say, isn't she guilty of being all hypocrisy and no democracy?

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

I am a little bit surprised to get this question from the shadow minister who has asked it, given that he was responsible for working with the now Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Penny Wong, to negotiate the bipartisan agreement on pricing carbon that was before this parliament during the last parliamentary term—a man who dedicated hour after hour after hour to working on a scheme to price carbon. We thank him for those efforts. The fact that now he has been asked to come to the dispatch box and ask this question just shows the hypocrisy of the opposition when it comes to pricing carbon, because of course we know that across the opposition there are people who believe, as we do, that climate change is real and that the most efficient way of dealing with climate change is to price carbon. Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition used to believe that very, very firmly himself until he decided that it was in his political interest to run the protest campaign that he is running now—all opposition and no leader.

The answer to the shadow minister's question is—and I refer to his wise words before the election—that he knows, as I do, that there are upwards pressures on electricity prices arising from things like underinvestment in distribution.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The question has been asked.

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

He very, very clearly talked about those upwards pressures before the last election and indicated that electricity prices would rise no matter who formed the government after the election. I thank him for that honesty.

On the question of carbon pricing, of course we are going to get big polluters to pay and we are going to use more than half that revenue to assist Australian families. At the same time, the shadow minister who asked the question is now backing—as a result of having to leave behind his former position because of the hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition—a rip-off of Australian families to take that money out of family budgets and to give it to big polluters. I will leave him with that position. We will put a price on big polluters and assist families.