What Julia Gillard really said about pricing carbon

Listening to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott lay into Prime Minister Gillard over the announcement that her government was moving towards setting an interim price on carbon from 1 July 2012 as a precursor to an national emissions trading scheme by 2017 and, then hearing knuckle-dragging radio ‘personality’ Alan Jones’ near hysterical rant on the same subject (full transcript here) one could be forgiven for thinking that Ms. Gillard had never let the Australian electorate know her thinking before the last federal election held on 21 August 2010.

Both of these gentleman forget the enduring convenience of Google when it comes to checking if one’s memory is correct or not.

Yes, she did say that there would not be a carbon tax and, despite Abbott and Jones trying to rewrite history, a stand alone, permanent carbon tax is not what is being planned for now.

However, Gillard did go to some pains to let us all know that carbon pricing was going to occur if Labor was re-elected.

In June 2010 The Australian reported:

Julia Gillard will pursue a carbon price if she wins the next election…

In July 2010 The Herald Sun also reported the Prime Minister’s position:

"We will have that price on carbon when we have a deep community consensus."
Today, Ms Gillard emphatically ruled out a price on carbon before 2012 as she prepares to release a new policy on climate change.
That means no ETS, no carbon tax and no interim carbon levy until then.

The Business Spectator in July 2010:

The federal government has agreed new policies on climate change, including a commitment to set an interim price on carbon, the Australian Financial Review reports.

On the day before we all went to the polls Gillard was reported at news.com.au:

Julia Gillard says she is prepared to legislate a carbon price in the next term as part of a bold series of reforms

In The Australian on the same day:

In an election-eve interview with The Australian, the Prime Minister revealed she would view victory tomorrow as a mandate for a carbon price, provided the community was ready for this step.

Even Tony Abbott was aware of Gillard’s commitment to pricing carbon. His own website contained this post almost two months before the last federal election:

If she is serious about putting a price on carbon she shouldn’t wait until after the election, she should sit down with Bob Brown now, come up with something, tell us now what she’s going to do rather than just fudge this until after the election. But it’s typical of the new Prime Minister that she wants to get credit for wanting to do something without getting the blame for actually doing something and this is a Prime Minister who will tell people what she thinks they want to hear but she won’t then put the policies in place to deliver on that.