Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her words only yesterday: 'Since we announced the carbon pricing scheme, 73,500 jobs have been created.' Is the Prime Minister aware that this represents the slowest jobs growth in an 18-month period since the depths of the 1990s recession? With unemployment rising further today, why does the Prime Minister think that the slowest jobs growth since the Keating recession is something to boast about?

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

To the shadow Treasurer, I refer him to today's employment figures and the creation of 32,000 jobs. I refer him to the Leader of the Opposition's reckless fear campaign, which the shadow Treasurer is now trying to reinterpret because the shadow Treasurer must know the kind of nonsense that was spouted by the Leader of the Opposition. What the opposition went round saying for months and months and months was that the economy would basically halt the day carbon pricing came into effect, and that it would be a wrecking ball through our economy. Terminology like 'a permanent depression' was used. Whyalla was going to be wiped off the map.

Let us be very, very clear here: what the Leader of the Opposition effectively predicted was the loss of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of jobs. That was the nature of his fear campaign. The coal industry—not to exist anymore. The town of Whyalla—gone. All manufacturing—gone. A wrecking ball through the economy; a permanent depression. These were the predictions.

What has in fact happened—and the shadow Treasurer really knows this, but feels the need to fall in line with this reckless campaign—is that we have continued to see jobs growth. We have continued to see jobs growth at a time of volatility continuing in the global economy.

I would refer the shadow Treasurer to the work of the IMF. He might hang his head about that—needing to look at the work of the IMF—but it records, of course, the circumstances of the global economy and some of the things that are impacting on global growth rates. It also records the circumstances of the Australian economy, where we continue to see growth at trend, where we continue to see jobs created, and where we continue to see low unemployment rates. When you look around the world, who would you change with? America? No—higher than us. The UK? No—higher than us. Parts of Europe with unemployment rates at 20 per cent or 25 per cent? Here, in the Australian economy: low unemployment; low inflation; a triple-A credit rating from all three major credit ratings agencies—something never achieved by the Howard government in office.

The opposition should stop talking the Australian economy down. Australians are proud of the economy we have created. We have done it together—employers, employees, unions and the government, working in partnership in the worst economic downturn since the great recession of the late 1920s, and we have come through, building jobs, and we will continue to build for the future through our clean energy package and build jobs at the same time.

John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and Will the minister update the House on the carbon price and its impact on household electricity prices? Why is it important that Australians hear the truth regarding the impact of the carbon price on their electricity bills?

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for his question. The government has been entirely up-front about the impact of the carbon price on household electricity bills, because the Treasury modelling found the carbon price would increase household electricity prices by an average of 10 per cent, which equates to an average of $3.30 per week across Australian households. To meet that impact, the government is deploying the majority of the revenue from the carbon price to implement tax cuts and increase pensions, family tax benefits and other Commonwealth payments, to an average of $10.10 per week in households across the country—$10.10 versus $3.30 a week in electricity bills.

Electricity regulator price determinations and the market itself have confirmed the Treasury modelling. In fact, in some jurisdictions the impact is less than the Treasury modelling. In South Australia, for example, the average household impact is just $1.50 per household per week. It is important to establish those facts, because the Leader of the Opposition consistently engages in a cowardly campaign of frightening people in the community and, in particular, of trying to terrify pensioners about the impact of carbon pricing.

Mr Christensen interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Dawson is warned!

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just yesterday, the opposition leader, in question time, made a false statement, a false claim, about the electricity bill of an elderly Western Australian. The opposition leader told the House:

With an $800 increase in just one bill, of which 70 per cent is due to the carbon tax …

That is completely fallacious, totally wrong, totally deceitful. Even the most cursory examination of that bill that the opposition leader reluctantly tabled demonstrates that he did not read it. The most cursory examination of the bill demonstrates two things: a clear statement by the energy retailer that the carbon price impact is just 9.13 per cent—if you had bothered to read it, you might have noticed before you brought it into the House for your very first question. Your very first question, and you get it wrong. You do not read it.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, the use of the word 'you' is inappropriate.

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I apologise. The second thing evident from the most cursory examination of this bill is that the electricity consumption almost doubled compared to the previous billing period. The statements that are made by the Leader of the Opposition are totally false, totally deceitful, totally gutless. People are starting to see through the deceit that is being engaged in here and they are going to judge you very harshly. (Time expired)

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the cost of electricity, which has risen 64 per cent since Labor came to power, the cost of water and sewerage, which has risen 59 per cent, and the cost of insurance, education and medical services, which have all gone up by more than 30 per cent. Why is the Prime Minister making the lives of all Australians harder by slugging consumers with a carbon tax that is designed to push up electricity prices?

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

From the Leader of the National Party what we see is a continuation of the campaign of deceit that the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency was just exposing to this parliament—a campaign of falsehoods and misrepresentations, a campaign designed to put fear into Australians, a campaign that every step of the way neglects the facts, including bringing into the parliament yesterday an electricity bill no-one in the opposition had bothered to read, which on its face clearly supported what the government has been saying about the increase in electricity pricing caused by carbon.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

I know the member for Sturt does not want people to have the facts, but these are the facts. What the Leader of the National Party has just done in pursuit of misleading Australians is he has tried to combine electricity price rises from different sources and pretend that they are all about carbon. That is wholly untrue. That is a misrepresentation. That is an attempt to mislead. What the Leader of the National Party actually knows is that the impact on electricity prices is 10 per cent—$3.30 a week on average, when, on average, households have received assistance of $10.10 a week. Yes, there have been shocking increases in electricity that come from other sources and are the responsibility, in part, of policy settings of state governments—something about which the Leader of the National Party, to my knowledge, has never said anything, because instead he prefers to engage in this campaign of misleading.

Australians do face cost-of-living pressures. There is no doubt about that. So the government has worked with Australians on those cost-of-living pressures, and we will continue to do so. That has included providing tax cuts, including making sure that people can earn $18,200 a year without paying a cent of tax. It has included family payment increases, including the package of sharing the benefits from the boom, opposed by those opposite. It has included the schoolkids bonus, which, to a person, everybody opposite marched in and voted against. It has included putting more money into child care, which of course is there to support families with their cost-of-living pressures.

There is one opposition member who is prepared to tell the truth about these things—that is, Mal Washer, who has said:

We beat the drum too hard on the carbon tax—everyone has stopped listening to the sound of it. The marrow has gone out of it—we need to move on to other issues.

I suggest to the Leader of the National Party that he talk to Mal Washer about telling the truth. (Time expired)