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

I will take the interjections from the other side, because they really demonstrate a lack of understanding of two things. One is the concept of relative prices—and I suggest they read a very good speech by Mr Turnbull, on the CPRS from memory, where he actually went through this, for those who might have forgotten why price signals are efficient. The second is that the government has always been upfront about there being an impact on prices. It is not a significant impact—as I said, it is substantially less than the GST impact—and that is reflected in the assistance package the government has put into place, which includes, amongst other things, as the senator would be aware, a tripling of the tax-free threshold. I don't have the figures with me about the number of Tasmanians we estimate who would benefit from that, but I would suggest to the senator they would be substantial. We also are increasing the pension and the Disability Support Pension, and there are additional payments to people who receive family tax benefits and other allowances, to reflect the additional price impact.

There is no cost-free way to reduce emissions. The coalition's policy would cost Australians more. The government's policy is economically efficient and lowest cost and ensures, particularly, that low- and middle-income Australia are assisted.