Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. I refer to the government's decision to link its post-2015 carbon price to the European carbon price and to the minister's repeated defence of that decision in the Senate. Given that the European carbon price currently is less than $4 per tonne, does the minister have any advice that the European price is likely to increase to the $29 a tonne by 2016 that she so consistently, confidently and arrogantly predicted and, if so, what is the basis of that advice?

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

I am happy to deal with the aspects of the question which fall within my portfolio, but the senator should recall that I no longer represent on climate change and have not for some time. In terms of the carbon price, the government have made clear already, I think, on the public record that we will update our estimates of that particular price, as with all other parameters, in the usual way in the budget which will be handed down by the Treasurer at 7.30 tonight.

I also remind the senator that, if he is concerned about economic policy, he surely would be concerned about the cost of his own policy, which is some $1,300 for every household in Australia for every year to achieve the same environmental outcome. The ridiculous position that the opposition are in is that they, who are supposedly the free marketeers in this place, support a bureaucratic, taxpayer funded, expensive scheme. We hear this often. We get Senator Macdonald raving about regulation. Have a look at your climate change policy. It is nothing but regulation and expense for Australian families. So the party of free markets, on that side, are supporting a taxpayer funded, inefficient, bureaucratic scheme, and the party on this side, consistent with all sensible economists, have said that pricing carbon and using the market are the most efficient way and lowest cost way for Australia to reduce its emissions.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Does the minister acknowledge that she and the government were repeatedly warned about the dangers of linking Australia's carbon price to the European price? And will she apologise to the Senate and the Australian people for the head-in-the-sand 'we know best' attitude that she and her ministerial colleagues took to those who warned about those dangers?

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

I would say that the decision to price carbon, and the view that pricing carbon was the best way to lower Australia's emissions, is something that Mr Howard as Prime Minister agreed with. In fact, this is a latter-day conversion by those opposite, who believe now, apparently, that you do not price things; what you do is that you tax people more, you tax Australian families more, in order to pay polluters in the hope that they might reduce pollution. Like John Howard, like Malcolm Turnbull—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! You need to refer to people in the other place by their correct title.

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

Sorry. Like Mr Howard and like Mr Turnbull, those on this side believe that pricing carbon is the most appropriate way to lower emissions.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. How can Australian families and businesses plan for the future with confidence and certainty when the government's revenue estimates are in chaos, when the expenditure side of the budget—for which the minister is responsible—has blown out so badly, when so many promises have been broken, when so many deficits have been delivered and when the price of carbon is to be tied to the prices paid in Europe?

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

I will take the accusations about the state of the economy and the state of the budget. I refer those opposite to the comments of former Prime Minister Mr Howard—

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Who?

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

Mr Howard, who said:

When the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and others tell you that the Australian economy is doing better than most—they are right …

'They are right.' That is from Mr Howard. It is not from any Labor person; it is from the conservative Prime Minister that Senator Abetz has said is the greatest Prime Minister ever. So perhaps, Senator Abetz, instead of playing the talking-down-the-economy negative hyperbole we see from those opposite, who do not care if they impact upon confidence, who are happy to be economically reckless, perhaps they should listen to their former leader, who has told it how it is: the economy is doing better than most. (Time expired)