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

Madam Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister. I remind her that in the past three years families' electricity costs have increased by 45 per cent. Is the Prime Minister aware that Australians' electricity bills have increased by more under her than they did in the entire 11 years of the Howard government? Will the Prime Minister now reduce the squeeze on families' cost of living by rescinding the increase in the carbon tax due to take effect in just two weeks?

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

I genuinely thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question because it enables me to explain to him something that I explained to the Australian nation last year—that is, what are the real drivers of cost in electricity, including the extraordinary levels of investment we have seen in the poles and wires; including the market incentives that there are in the current system for the so-called gold-plating of the system that then feeds through to the prices that families and businesses pay.

Of course, we got the facts out on the table—and I know the facts are something the Leader of the Opposition never likes to hear about because they disturb his world outlook, but facts are facts and they deserve paying regard to. The facts of this, of course, were that well before our nation priced carbon, consumers had had to tolerate increases of more than 50 per cent in their electricity prices because of these other drivers of costs. So we have moved to address those other drivers of costs through a comprehensive reform process we engaged in through the Council of Australian Governments in the last six months of last year, and we did secure agreement at the COAG meeting at the end of last year to regulatory and other changes to put downward pressure on electricity pricing.

But of course the Leader of the Opposition does not want to refer to any of that because he does not want Australian families to know the truth about what is driving electricity prices, but that is the truth. And the Leader of the Opposition spent many weeks at the time of the greatest heat in that debate effectively defending Liberal state governments and saying on that area, which would make a real difference to the cost-of-living pressures experienced by households, that he would do absolutely nothing. On carbon pricing, as the Leader of the Opposition well knows, carbon pricing is working to reduce carbon pollution, it is working with our renewable energy target to reduce carbon pollution, and households have been assisted with the price rise that they saw in electricity, which was exactly as we predicted. None of the Leader of the Opposition's fear mongering in any of that came true.

So to the Leader of the Opposition, the questions are simple. Why does he want our nation to reduce carbon pollution in a more expensive way? Why doesn't he join with the government in effectively working to put downward pressure on electricity prices through the COAG reform agenda? And why is he insisting on doing things like ripping money out of the hands of families through ripping away basic benefits like the Schoolkids Bonus? That is what the Leader of the Opposition should answer.

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

Madam Speaker, I ask a supplementary question to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that two-thirds of the increase in electricity prices since 1 July last year is exclusively due to the carbon tax?

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

Lesson No. 1: do not let the member for Flinders give you a handwritten question. Lesson No. 2: on carbon pricing, what we always said on this side of politics was that putting a price on carbon would increase electricity prices by 10 per cent and we would assist families with those increased costs—and we did.

On the other side of politics, the Leader of the Opposition ran around the country on a crazed fear campaign, saying people would not have a job, Whyalla would be wiped off the map, there would be astronomical increases in the cost of living, and members of the opposition were telling us that a lamb roast would cost $100—ridiculous stuff. Ridiculous, mendacious claims from the Leader of the Opposition. Well, now he stands here with all of those claims proven to be untrue. With other conservatives around the world embracing putting a price on carbon as the most efficient way of reducing carbon pollution, there he is with his turkey of a policy that he cannot explain and that does not add up. This government stands for reducing carbon pollution in the most cost-effective way, whereas the Leader of the Opposition stands for shovelling huge burdens to pay for his ridiculous policy onto Australian families.