Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (14:09): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his reference to the Garnaut review, which Professor Garnaut gave me earlier today and about which he has been speaking at the National Press Club. I have the review in my hand. It is the product of seven months work and I think we should thank Professor Garnaut for it as an Australian parliament and as an Australian nation. I do not anticipate that everybody will agree with every view put forward by Professor Garnaut, but that should not stop us actually thanking him for his work and respecting him in his professionalism in doing it. In answer to the Leader of the Opposition's question, given he has talked about the question of cost, yes, Professor Garnaut makes some observations about costs. There is one on page 77 of this report and it uses the terminology 'direct action', as the Leader of the Opposition would use to refer to his policy. I would refer to it as a policy in which polluters are subsidised. But Professor Garnaut says this: Using direct action measures to achieve similar amounts of emissions reduction would raise costs— Opposition members interjecting— Ms GILLARD: The Leader of the Opposition may be interested in these words— much more than a carbon price but would not raise the revenue to offset or reduce the costs in any of these ways. Mr Pyne: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Leader of the Opposition's question could not have been more specific. It quoted a sentence from the Garnaut review and it asked the Prime Minister how she could continue to maintain that only the biggest polluters would pay. After quoting from the Garnaut review, the Prime Minister is not even attempting to answer that question. I would ask you to bring her back to the question. The SPEAKER: Order! The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. At the time that the member approached the dispatch box the Prime Minister was relating a further reference in the report to carbon pricing. Ms GILLARD: My point is basically this, that if you want to look at the Garnaut review then you should look at all of it. Mr Pyne interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! Ms GILLARD: What he does say about the measures that are proposed by the Leader of the Opposition is that they would raise costs much more than a carbon price but would not raise the revenue to offset or reduce the cost in any of these ways. Opposition members interjecting— Mr Sidebottom interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! Ms GILLARD: The costs might be covered by budgetary expenditure but this affects who pays the cost, not whether the costs are there, and other people's taxes have to rise to pay for expenditures under direct action. So what Professor Garnaut is putting there, and what is a clear contrast between the policy that the government stands for and the Leader of the Opposition's policy, is that we are putting a price on carbon that big polluters would pay. Mr Pyne interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Sturt is warned. Mr Sidebottom interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Braddon is warned. Ms GILLARD: We have always been clear about that, that big polluters would pay the price and by paying that price they would have the incentives they need to act to reduce the carbon pollution that they emit. We have also been very clear with Australian families—and I said this when I first outlined the carbon pricing mechanism to the Australian community—that there will be price impacts that flow through to Australian households. That is why we will use the majority of the revenue raised from pricing carbon to assist Australian households with those impacts, to generously assist Australian families who need that assistance the most. And we will use the remainder of the revenue to protect Australian jobs and to fund programs which help our move to being a clean energy economy. As Professor Garnaut says, the Leader of the Opposition's plan is about putting costs directly onto the shoulders of Australian taxpayers—that is, onto the shoulders of Australian families without any compensation at all.