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 her of her planned review of the coverage of the carbon tax in the next term of parliament. Will the Prime Minister rule out expanding the carbon tax to cover the farm sector or the family car?

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

Yes, I can rule out covering the family car. That is not covered by current carbon pricing legislation. There is absolutely no proposal or suggestion by the government that it does. I think that the Leader of the Opposition is well aware that the problem with the farm sector is that there is no reliable way of measuring emissions and that means that it is not possible for the farm sector to be covered by carbon pricing. However, it is possible for the farm sector to benefit from carbon reduction arrangements. We have ensured that farming does benefit through our Carbon Farming Initiative.

I want to pay some tribute to Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott on the design of this. It is an important way for farmers to realise additional value from their land by ensuring that their farming practices assist our environment by taking carbon pollution out of the atmosphere and storing it in the soil. We have made sure that there is a stream of assistance and a stream of funding that can reward our farmers for those best practice endeavours.

Of course, all of that is at risk from the Leader of the Opposition's policies and plans. He is right to point out to this parliament that the government being re-elected in September will give the nation stability on carbon pricing. What he ought to do is point out very clearly the alternative, which is, if he is elected, there will be complete chaos because of the half-baked nature of his policies and plans and his plan to throw the Australian economy and the Australian nation into turmoil to try and get rid of a carbon pricing policy which he used to support, which he stood on a platform in 2007 in favour of and which he knows in his heart of hearts is working.

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

): Speaker, I have a supplementary question. I remind the Prime Minister of her pre-election statement, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' Given that that assurance could not be relied upon, how can people rely upon the assurance that the Prime Minister has just given?

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

Back to our old favourite. Because the Leader of the Opposition is unable to win a debate on the facts, he is always reduced to this and it is somewhat embarrassing for him. What I can say to the Leader of the Opposition is that they are in the history of carbon pricing in this country, Prime Minister Howard in 2007 indicated to the Australian electorate that he favoured an emissions trading scheme, as did the Leader of the Opposition.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop interjecting—

The member for Mackellar is yelling out, 'And he lost the election.' The climate sceptics are alive and well on the front bench of the opposition, repudiating the political legacy of John Howard. It is quite remarkable. Prime Minister Howard stood for election wanting to have an emissions trading scheme. The Leader of the Opposition stood at his side wanting to have an emissions trading scheme. This government since its election has fought for an emissions trading scheme and now that emissions trading scheme is the law of this country. So the law of this country is stable, is strong and is working. The threat to that is the Leader of the Opposition's ridiculous plans, completely unable to be explained, to subsidise polluters and to waste money from families doing that. The Leader of the Opposition's threat to the Australian economy which all of this chaos and turmoil would cause— (Time expired)