Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I am asked about price impacts. As the Prime Minister has said, once you price something that is currently free, which is polluting, there will be price impacts. The carbon price is paid by big polluters but, yes, we have acknowledged there will be price impacts, which is why, under the approach we will be taking, households will get assistance. The Prime Minister has been clear about that. For Senator Bernardi’s information, it is one of the key differences between the government’s approach as proposed and the opposition’s approach. The opposition takes from taxpayers and gives to polluters. The government levies a charge on pollution, recognises the price impacts and provides assistance to Australian households. No amount of the sort of scaremongering and inaccurate information that Senator Bernardi and others in the opposition put forward will make us resile from this basic fact: we want to price carbon. If you do not price carbon, you do not effectively tackle climate change. There will be price impacts. The government has said that, which is why we have also said that we would be looking, as the first priority, to assist households.