Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (14:08): I thank the member for La Trobe for that wonderfully perceptive question and I thank her for her advocacy on behalf of her community in this place. Soon we will be in a position to announce full details of the carbon-pricing package which, as a Labor government, we have been working hard on. We have been working hard, as a Labor government, in order to tackle climate change—a huge challenge for our nation's future. As we have gone about the challenge of tackling climate change and cutting carbon pollution, we have done it guided by our Labor values. Guided by our Labor values, we have been working to ensure that nine out of 10 households get assistance through tax cuts or payment increases or a combination of both, that the vast majority of those households will not pay a cent as a result of pricing carbon and that more than three million low-income households will get the benefit of a 20 per cent buffer. We know that their budgets are tight and we want to make sure that, in tight budgets, they have 20 per cent of reassurance, that they have been assisted above and beyond the impact of a carbon price. We also have wanted to take the decision to not put a carbon price on petrol because we understand that, in many parts of the country, people have got no choice but to get into their car and to drive their car to get places. It is true of the outer urban electorate that I represent, it is true of the outer urban electorate that the member for La Trobe represents and it is true of country and regional Australia, as represented in this place by so many good Labor members. For example, last week I was with the member for Lingiari, a place where you have got no alternative but to jump in your car and drive. So we have determined that, because of the needs of families in outer urban places and in regional Australia, there should not be a carbon price on petrol. I also thank the member for New England for his advocacy on behalf of regional Australia and his community as we have gone about pricing carbon. We have done it in a Labor way, and doing it in a Labor way means that we should look at the alternatives that are being advocated in this place. Unfortunately, the alternative is a $720 per year direct slug on families. The Liberal party's position was not always like this. Mr Fletcher interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Bradfield is warned. Mr Simpkins interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Cowan will leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a). The member for Cowan then left the chamber. Ms GILLARD: I refer the parliament to this report of the former Howard government on emissions trading—the emissions trading scheme the former Howard government wanted to introduce and which, if it had introduced it as heralded by this report, would have started on 1 July this year. That emissions trading scheme of the Howard government would have had a carbon price on petrol. That is, the Leader of the Opposition was a cabinet minister in a government that would have put a carbon price on petrol from 1 July this year. That is the truth from this report. Instead, the Leader of the Opposition has been out trying to scare Australian families. It is time for him to do the decent thing, to go back to Queanbeyan and to say to the people at the fresh food market that he was wrong when he said to them that petrol would go up, to go back to Moorebank and say to the community there that he was wrong when he said that petrol would go up. He should stand at the dispatch box and say in this parliament that he was wrong when he said petrol would go up. That would be the decent thing to do. We await to see whether or not the Leader of the Opposition is a decent man who will do it. (Time expired)