Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her pre-election statement that she would not seek to introduce a carbon price until a deep and lasting consensus had been achieved. How can she claim that such a consensus exists when she refuses to put it to the people, preferably at an election but, if not, at a plebiscite?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I see that the Leader of the Opposition is continuing to pursue the stunt he started yesterday. National leadership requires you to deliver policies for the nation's future that are of some complexity. Certainly, carbon pricing is a complex policy, but it is in the nation's interest and I will pursue that policy. Unfortunately for the Leader of the Opposition, he is not only incapable of generating an idea for the nation's future, he is not only incapable of delivering a complex reform; he has actually proved incapable, over the last 24 hours, of pulling a stunt. He cannot even competently pull a stunt. He was out there saying he was going to have a simultaneous vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate at 10 am yesterday. No-one obviously told him that that was not possible because parliament was not sitting at that time; the House was not sitting. He did not go to his shadow cabinet, because presumably there may have been someone there with the wit to say that this was a particularly dumb stunt. Perhaps more important than any other point, this would cost taxpayers $80 million and the Leader of the Opposition is on the record as saying that he would not abide by the result in any event—$80 million to be wasted and he would not even abide by the result. I think Australians would be more concerned—

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a very simple question: why is the Prime Minister frightened of the people's vote? Why is she running away from the people's vote? And she should be directly relevant, Mr Speaker.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister knows the requirements. The Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And why is the Leader of the Opposition running away from the obligations of national leadership, which require us to put policies before the Australian people and to change the nation so that we are best prepared for the nation's future? That is, the obligation of national leadership requires us to tackle climate change in the cheapest way possible, and that is by pricing carbon. This stunt which the Leader of the Opposition is pursuing today is an $80 million stunt, where he has said he would not even abide by the result. I believe Australians would be particularly disturbed to hear that what the Leader of the Opposition would prefer to do with $80 million—he does not want to put it into schools; he does not want to put it into hospitals; he does not want to put it into policies to assist older Australians—is put it into a political stunt because, as usual, he is all about his political interests, not about the national interest. Once again, what we seeing on display in the parliament today is all opposition, no leader.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question to the Prime Minister. I remind the Prime Minister that the principal obligation of the national leadership is to tell the truth before elections. My question to the Prime Minister—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Opposition has the call. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that he must relate his supplementary question to the original question and response.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given the obligations of national leadership, I ask the Prime Minister: if she will not listen to her backbench, if she will not listen to the unions, if she certainly will not listen to the public when it comes to a carbon tax, is this why no-one is listening to her?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Once again, we see that the Leader of the Opposition has come to parliament today with a mouthful of insults and a mind completely blank when it comes to ideas. That is not national leadership. On the question of telling the truth, I distinctly recall the Leader of the Opposition, before the election in 2004, when talking about the Medicare safety net, giving a commitment that it would not be changed and making a 'cast-iron commitment, absolutely'. He was asked about the percentage of out-of-pocket costs and he said 'an absolutely, rock-solid, ironclad commitment'—smashed, of course, the day after the election.

Then on the question of carbon pricing, which the Leader of the Opposition asked me about, who said this, 'An emissions trading scheme probably is the best way to put a price on carbon'? Who said that? That would be the Leader of the Opposition. So for the Leader of the Opposition to come in with his insults and his confected outrage really is not persuasive at all. National leadership requires us to tackle the challenges of the future.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. In the question and the supplementary, the Prime Minister was asked to answer for her own words. If she is not prepared to defend her own words before the election, she should sit down.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst the question may have invited debate, the debate must be directly relevant to the question. The Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I could not have been asked a broader question about national leadership, and I am responding to it. National leadership requires us to tackle climate change. National leadership requires us to tackle it in the most efficient way possible. National leadership therefore requires us to ask the big polluters to pay and to use that money to assist Australian families. That is what I stand for: asking the thousand biggest polluters in this country to pay and using that money to assist Australian families, protect jobs and fund programs to tackle climate change. The Leader of the Opposition stands for taking money off Australian families and giving it to big polluters. Well, I will continue to stand up for the interests of hardworking Australian families. It is a question for the Leader of the Opposition to answer who he stands up for. The answer appears to be: big polluters.