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

If I could deal first in relation to the second proposition, which was also the proposition in Senator Abetz's question—one of the many, and I did not get to this one—that somehow this is the world's largest price on carbon. I would make the point that the European Union obviously has a much larger economy than Australia's. Their emissions trading scheme is much larger than Australia's. I also make the point, because the opposition appear not to have listened to the evidence of the secretary of the department of climate change, that a number of public statements have been made which compare an overinflated number for Australian permits with only auction revenue from the introductory phase of the EU emissions trading scheme. This is a misleading comparison.

In relation to jobs more broadly the government is putting in place a Jobs and Competitiveness Program, which will provide some $9.2 billion of assistance over the first three years of the carbon price to support industry, to protect jobs and to encourage industry to invest in cleaner technologies. In addition there is a $1.2 billion Clean Technology Program as well as the Steel Transformation Plan, and I look forward to seeing whether or not the opposition will be supporting the government when we bring forward that legislation.

We do take the view that this is about moving to an economy that will become more competitive. In a world that will increasingly put a premium on low-carbon goods and services, a carbon price is a signal to investors to invest in clean energy and clean energy technologies. This is an important transformation of the economy. There is, I am sure, no end to the scare campaigns that will continue to be mounted from those opposite. In years to come, it will be seen as the right thing— (Time expired)