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

The senator would know that we have undertaken modelling in relation to a carbon price and the details of that modelling were released, from memory, on the day that the Clean Energy Future package was released. It might have been earlier; I cannot quite recall the dates. It is the case that the Treasury modelling itself was based on a $20 starting price. However, the modelling of the household impacts and the government's household assistance package was based on a $23 starting carbon price. That has been made public. The budget impacts that were released on that day were also calculated based on a $23 carbon price.

As part of the wide-ranging scare campaign the opposition has engaged in, I have seen some commentary from those opposite suggesting that this somehow throws doubt on every single aspect of the government's package. That is simply not the case. Let us keep in mind that this is modelling over a number of decades. So, whilst there might be a slight difference in the price in the first few years, we are looking at long-run modelling. That modelling is the same sort of modelling that, for example, Peter Costello would have used in the context of the Intergenerational report. It is the case, as I said, that some of the key figures which have been the subject of discussion and which are important for the purposes of sensible public debate have been modelled on a $23 starting price. I would make the point that, contrary to the assertion of those opposite that somehow this will ensure the sky falls in, we can still grow the economy and grow jobs with a carbon price. (Time expired)