Ms GILLARD (Prime Minister) (3:11 PM) —And now we have heard everything in this parliament—a lecture on courage from a man who tweeted and asked people to tell him what he should think on climate change! He is the man for whom the expression ‘no ticker’ was actually generated. He is a man who is hollow, without courage, and does not know what to believe in. He tried to get the leadership of the Liberal Party on the basis that he would say: ‘I don’t know anything, I don’t think anything, I don’t believe in anything. Everybody on the backbench can have a conscience vote.’ He is a man without courage and a man without integrity, because he has said in the past that he stands for a price on carbon and now he is walking away from it.

There are some days in question time where there is one moment that symbolises and comes to be the fulcrum on which a debate changes, and we have had that moment today. I have been saying to the Australian people that this is a desperate fear campaign built on a foundation of lies from the opposition—and we have had that proved today in just one moment. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition came into the parliament today and put to me the following question:

What she did in formulating that question was to cut the sentence in half. What I said was that every cent raised from pricing carbon will go to assisting households, to helping businesses transition and to programs to tackle climate change. This was one moment that symbolises a campaign of dishonesty—bringing in a transcript and deliberately cutting it in half to give a false and dishonest impression to the Australian people. That one moment symbolises what this opposition is about: a campaign of dishonesty.

The Leader of the Opposition has been out saying to the Australian people, ‘You’ll pay this dollar figure more, or that dollar figure more for the things that you buy.’ Well, let us just go to a statement from Woolworths—and they’d know a bit about pricing, wouldn’t they! They have said very clearly that they could not forecast the potential price impacts until more details of the scheme were released. Every time the Leader of the Opposition has used a dollar figure, every time he has stood in a shop, every time he has stood next to a car and put petrol in it he has been misleading the Australian people—a campaign of dishonesty, a campaign of fear, a foundation of lies from the Leader of the Opposition.

Let us continue going through the dishonesty, the foundation of lies, that the Liberal Party now relies on. Let us look at the track record of the Leader of the Opposition in dealing with the question of pricing carbon. This will tell you how contentless he is, how he will say anything, how he will do anything on the question of climate change. He has said the following in relation to the Rudd government:

He was in this parliament today denying a mandate. He said about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme:

He said that in the past. He has said in the past:

They are statements made by the Leader of the Opposition, and when the government moves to price carbon, despite him having made those statements, despite him having supported pricing carbon, despite him in fact having directly supported a carbon tax as the best system, he decides that his political interest lies in generating fear. It is a campaign built on dishonesty and a foundation of lies. Should it be a surprise to the Australian community that this man, when faced with choosing between the nation’s interest and his own political interest, would say every time, ‘My own political interest comes first’? He believes in profiting at the nation’s expense. He believes that if he can profit from the nation going to economic ruin, if he can prosper from the economy going downhill, then he will do so.

Mr Ruddock interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The member for Berowra is warned!

Ms GILLARD —The authority for this—that he always puts politics first—is actually the Leader of the Opposition himself.

Mr Simpkins interjecting—

Mr Symon interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The member for Cowan is warned! The member for Deakin should be careful.

Ms GILLARD —He has said, for example:

This is a man who basically has admitted that the only thing that drives him is the politics. He went on to say:

He is a man who believes in nothing, who will do and say anything, who will say any misleading statement that comes into his mind in order to politically profit.

Who has caught this the best? Who has best summarised this for the Australian people? Is it me as Prime Minister, as someone here who debates in this parliament? Is it someone on the government benches? Is it someone in the media? No, it is not. The person who best caught all of this about the Leader of the Opposition is the member for Wentworth, when he said:

This was the member for Wentworth’s critique of the leadership of this Leader of the Opposition. This was the member for Wentworth saying to the Australian community that, though he holds a Liberal Party card—

Government members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The Prime Minister will resume her seat. The House will come to order! The member for North Sydney on a point of order.

Mr Hockey —Just as you expected us to speak to the motion about the Prime Minister defending her personal integrity, I ask you to bring the Prime Minister—

The SPEAKER —The member for North Sydney will resume his seat! Just a friendly warning: next time he approaches the dispatch box with a point of order of that ilk, he should not indicate in any way his disquiet with any ruling that I have given. I think that I gave both himself as the seconder of the motion and the Leader of the Opposition a fair degree of allowance. This is a motion on a suspension of standing and sessional orders. Rarely has it been mentioned in the debate. The Prime Minister has the call.

Ms GILLARD —Of course we know the shadow Treasurer, in his bitterness and his shame, does not want to hear the words of the member for Wentworth about the Leader of the Opposition, but they are true words about the Leader of the Opposition. Let us be clear about this debate and where it will lead us. We went to the last election saying to the Australian people, ‘We have to price carbon.’ We went to the last election saying to the Australian people—

Mr Hockey —No carbon tax! No carbon tax!

Mr Randall —No carbon tax! No carbon tax!

The SPEAKER —The member for North Sydney is warned! The member for Canning is warned!

Ms GILLARD —the best way of doing that is through a market based mechanism where the market sets the price—

Mr Symon interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The member for Deakin is warned!

Ms GILLARD —where we cap the quantity of carbon pollution and the market sets the price. That is what we will achieve. We said to the Australian people we would do it and we will do it. We will stare down the dishonesty of the Liberal Party, we will stare down its fear campaigning, we will stare down its bitterness, we will stare down its lack of leadership, we will stare down its wont to wreck the Australian economy and we will get this done, despite the Leader of the Opposition, despite the shadow Treasurer and despite all of their antics and conduct and fear.

The SPEAKER —The member for Sturt will resume his place. For the record, I will admit that the Prime Minister got an extra 10 seconds—10 seconds! If that was a hanging crime, take me out. The question is that the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition for the suspension of standing and sessional orders be agreed to.

Question put.