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Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Page: 10087

Carbon Pricing

Mr TEHAN (Wannon) (15:24): My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the fact that the government is amending the Fuel Tax Act as part of its carbon tax package to remove the exemption which allows the delivery of fertiliser to farms to be defined as agriculture. Does the Prime Minister agree with Clarke Roycroft, the owner of a fertiliser business in Camperdown in my electorate, who says that whoever proposed this amendment has been 'doing too much drinking downstream of the herd'?

Mr Crean interjecting—

The SPEAKER: Order! I invite the minister for regional development to first of all read Practice where it says, whether you like it or not, a member when they are quoting, whether a constituent or not, is assumed to be quoting directly. Also, I say to the minister for regional development, if he wants to make comments on points of order, there is a procedure in the standing orders that allows him to come to the despatch box to make that point of order.

I have a different view from the member for Wannon's predecessor about the naming of people in questions. In this case, it is on the shoulders of the member for Wannon that he is actually quoting the person that he has named. The Prime Minister has the call.

Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (15:24): To the member for Wannon I say that I am happy to talk to him about an individual constituent matter, if that is what he would like me to do. More generally I say to him that we are determined to create a clean energy future for this country. That is why we introduced the legislation yesterday. This is a nation-changing reform about jobs and prosperity in the future and about making sure that we do the right thing by our environment and that we accept the best of scientific advice and the best of economists' advice. It does really amaze me as we move to the end of the second question time after the introduction of these bills that the Leader of the Opposition has been asking about everything else but not asking about this. Perhaps that is because he knows he cannot explain his policy, because he failed to do so in his speech today, which I came in to listen to.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Prime Minister will bring her answer to a conclusion.

Ms GILLARD: So, to the member for Wannon, if he genuinely has an issue on behalf of a constituent then I am very happy to address that matter with him directly.