Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I think Senator Abetz answers his own question. What Senator Abetz referred to, firstly, was the question of placing a price on carbon. It is, in fact, the case that the Australian parliament has legislated for a price on carbon. We have delivered what John Howard sought to do and what successive Liberal election commitments were to achieve but which saw the Liberal Party change its mind on the value of putting a price on carbon. What we know is that from 1 July there will be a price on carbon. We will have a massive change in the economic and environmental policies of this country that will allow us to deal with this major challenge of carbon pollution in our economy. That is a very real achievement and one which I think increasing numbers of Australians are coming to recognise is not the sort of doomsday scenario that the Liberal Party have been keen to press. In fact, it is interesting that the rhetoric of the Liberal Party has changed so much in recent days. They no longer talk about the 'Armageddon' of 1 July; now they are talking about a slow strangulation as they come to realise that the carbon price will transform our economy in a very positive way, will allow us to continue to grow jobs and will allow us to continue to grow our economy. We have an economy that, despite the impact of a carbon price coming in on 1 July, is growing very strongly, and we are seeing record investment, including in mining—a record pipeline of investment. As the mining sector realise, they will continue to have great opportunities in the Australian economy.