Debate rages over Australia's carbon price

Jeremy Thompson

Last Updated: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:55:00 +1000

Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott launched a vehement attack on the Government's carbon pricing plans as debate got underway in parliament Wednesday.

Thirty-eight MPs are scheduled to speak on the emissions trading package, but former Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull might not be one of them.

Mr Turnbull, who has publicly criticised his own party's position on the carbon price, was on the list to speak, but a spokesman has told the ABC he won't be speaking, saying his name was placed on the list by mistake.

But later, via Twitter, Mr Turnbull said he had not yet made up his mind.

"I will decide whether and if so when I speak after I have heard the other speakers and read the legislation," Mr Turnbull tweeted.

A withdrawal would save the Coalition the potential embarrassment of having one of its most senior members stray from its intractable opposition to the climate change legislation.

But Mr Abbott was not straying as he reaffirmed the Coalition's stance on Wednesday morning.

"This is a bad tax, based on a lie, and it should be rejected by this parliament," he told a packed House of Representatives, including Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

In introducing the 18 bills, Ms Gillard yesterday challenged MPs on how they wanted to be remembered by history.

Opposition hits back

Mr Abbott described her challenge as an "arrogant presumption by a Prime Minister who is on the wrong side of truth".

"This is a Prime Minister who sabotaged her predecessor, at least in part, because of her predecessor's desire to bring in an emissions trading scheme."

The Opposition Leader demanded Ms Gillard hold an election on the climate change issue, citing her "fatal" pre-election statement rejecting a carbon tax.

"This is the statement that haunts this debate. This is the statement that haunts this government," he said.

"This is the statement that makes the whole debate that we are having fundamentally illegitimate, because this is the very tax this parliament should not be considering."

Saying that Ms Gillard "perverted the democratic processes of this country" Mr Abbott said the "decent honest thing" would be to take the change of position to an election.

"Why hide from the people? Why not expose these arguments to the people? Because I say to this Prime Minister, if she really does want deep and lasting consensus to be attained in this country, there's one way to do it.

"Take it to the people and win an election.

"There should be no new tax collection without an election."

Describing the bills as "all economic pain for no environmental gain", Mr Abbott claimed the carbon price would push up power, fuel and gas prices.

"We won't be able to turn on our air conditioner or our heater without being impacted by this tax. We won't be able to get on a bus or a train, ultimately to drive our cars, without being impacted by this tax."

Mr Abbott was particularly scathing of Treasury modelling that showed thousands of jobs will be created as businesses invest in clean energy technology.

"Show me a credible economist, Prime Minister, who thinks that higher prices create more jobs.

"This is not just nonsense, this is nonsense on stilts by a government that has no real understanding of the economy of the real world in which most of us live."

Mr Abbott cited economic modelling commissioned by the Victorian Government which showed that by 2015, 23,000 jobs would be lost in the Latrobe Valley, Geelong and other areas.

With the numbers locked in to pass the legislation, Mr Abbott appealed to Labor MPs in industrial seats to cross the floor and block the bills.

"Stand up for jobs in your area, stand up for the jobs of your constituents, stop making excuses for a floundering prime minister.

"Stop putting the political interests of this prime minister ahead of the economic interests of your constituents."

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