Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The quality of the question, sadly, has not improved, so I will continue to do my best to provide a sensible answer, but the fundamental problem with the question that has been asked is that the Greens clearly do not understand about markets. The price under our scheme that you are asking about is going to be set by the market through a competitive system.

Our system is the ultimate market based mechanism to reduce emissions through a proper competitive tendering process. Instead of imposing a big new tax on everyone, instead of imposing a tax that pushes up the cost of electricity, pushes up the cost of gas, pushes up the cost of living, pushes up the cost of doing business and makes it harder for Australian businesses to be successful and costs jobs—instead of all that, we are pursuing a policy that helps reduce emissions in a way that does not detract from economic growth, and we make no apologies for it.