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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I remind the Prime Minister of data released this month that shows 900 Australian firms are currently being placed in administration each month, a level 12 per cent higher than during the global financial crisis. Does this not prove, in the words of the AMP's chief economist, that the carbon tax is clearly 'taking its toll'?

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

For the Leader of the Opposition, who continues to pursue this mendacious campaign, the facts are these. In the last 12 months 186,583 new companies were registered, according to ASIC figures. That is an average of over 14,000 new companies created each and every month. The fact is that, since the introduction of carbon pricing, the number of companies going into administration went down, not up—a fact that the Leader of the Opposition should focus on. The fact is that since the start of carbon pricing on 1 July more than 130,000 extra jobs have been created. That is more than 20 jobs every hour since carbon pricing started. Australia has maintained one of the lowest unemployment rates in the developed world, at 5.4 per cent. The economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 per cent in the year to December. Average weekly earnings are up by 4.6 per cent. Business investment has continued at very high levels, with almost $270 billion in confirmed investment into Australia's resources industry alone.

The Leader of the Opposition is once again back on his carbon pricing fear campaign, prepared to do or say anything. What they will never do is acknowledge a fact. This claim today is exactly the same as the claims we have heard in the past: Whyalla being wiped off the map, $100 roasts, jobs being smashed, a wrecking ball through the economy—all of the ridiculous rhetoric the Leader of the Opposition has engaged in. Each and every claim made by the Leader of the Opposition about carbon pricing has been proved wrong, and, once again, he is wrong today.

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

I understand the Prime Minister's vitriol against me, but is the Prime Minister maintaining that the chief economist of the AMP is wrong when he says that the carbon tax is clearly having a toll?

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

I know the facts weary the Leader of the Opposition, but my point is simply this: he is wrong now, as he has been wrong always, with his false claims about carbon pricing.