HOST: We'll get to answer some of your questions directly from the Prime Minister, who joins me now. Good morning.
PM: Good morning.
HOST: You are on this tour selling the carbon pricing scheme. Are the people you're talking to still struggling with the whole concept?
PM: I think people do want more information and it's my job to be out there explaining it. And, of course, we've come into this after a long debate and there's been a lot of fear mongering that's gone on.
At its heart, carbon pricing works because around 500 big polluters, who today can put pollution into our atmosphere for free, will from 1 July next year, have to pay a price to do it.
And once they have to pay a price for putting that pollution in the atmosphere, then they'll look for ways of innovating and changing to cut that carbon pollution, and that will add up to a reduction of at least 160 million tonnes in the amount of carbon pollution in 2020; the equivalent of 45 million cars.
So it's a bit like in the old days, when I was young you used to be able to go to the tip for absolutely nothing. Just put whatever you wanted to into the tip, then of course fees got introduced and that made people think ‘Can I reuse this rubbish? Can I recycle this rubbish?' How can I reduce the amount that I am going to take to the tip?' It's a similar concept.
HOST: We've had a lot of calls come through in the last half hour, since I made it known that I would be talking to you this morning, with people with questions.
So I will try and get through as many of these as possible. First of all, we have been reporting in the local news this morning that the member for Flynn, Ken O'Dowd, has bought ten 10,000 shares in East Energy Resources, do you see that as a show of support for the carbon tax?
PM: Well, I think it shows that the fear mongering by the Opposition is one thing, but even they know it is wrong. They know that there is a great future in energy in this country, a great future in coal in this country, and they're prepared to put their dollars in.
HOST: Will you be visiting central Queensland during this campaign?
PM: Look, I will be getting to as many places as I can. Obviously I can't be everywhere at once, but I have been a pretty frequent visitor - I had the opportunity to talk to people in central Queensland where, of course, a great future is unfolding as our resources boom continues to drive economic growth and economic change, and that resources boom will continue to be with us as we cut carbon pollution.
HOST: David from Claremont asked, if the coal mines are the major contributors to carbon pollution and the Greens want to phase them out, why is the Federal Government so keen to open new mines in central Queensland?
PM: I see a great future for coal mining in this country. I think we've got to be clear about coal mining and carbon pollution. In fact, mining coal doesn't generally create huge amounts of carbon pollution. There are some mines, a limited number of mines that are referred to as ‘gassy' mines, because they generate more carbon pollution than coal mining generally.
In terms of the way we are going to ask big polluters to pay a price for their carbon pollution, for the coal industry, on average that‘s around $1.40 a tonne in circumstances where we have seen coal prices double in the last few years.
So, coal is going to keep growing in this country, we will see more jobs in coal mining and through our $1.3 billion scheme we will work with the coal mining industry on those ‘gassy' mines.
HOST: Can you guarantee that no jobs are going to be lost from mines in central Queensland?
PM: I can certainly say coal mining is going to continue to grow and there will be more jobs in coal mining in the future.
HOST: What about short term?
PM: There will be, you will continue to see growth. Today, tomorrow, the day after - you will continue to see growth in coal.
HOST: Before nine I had in the studio with me Kay Becker who is the CEO of the Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service. Obviously they've got concerns about rising prices of aviation fuel and how that will impact on them, basically a service that is community funded.
Also small business are concerned about funding for them, especially new small business. How do you help those sorts of people?
PM: Well on not-for-profit organisations we understood that there would be some modest impacts from carbon pricing on not-for-profit organisations. I mean, we have got to get a sense of the flow through impacts here, so the big polluters are paying the price of putting carbon pollution in the atmosphere.
Some of that flows through into the prices of things that people buy. That impact is less than one per cent on the cost of living, so less than a cent in a dollar.
For not-for-profit organisations we have, in the package we announced on Sunday, a particular fund to help us work with not for profit organisations as they adjust to there being a price on carbon, with this less than one per cent flow through.
HOST: What about small business?
PM: Well, For small business - sorry I just want to be clear - I should have been clearer about the impacts there for not-for-profit, there is a special fund there, so that's the answer.
For small business, small business will see some flow through in things like electricity prices, so we have said in the announcement on Sunday there will be impacts on electricity prices.
What small businesses will be able to do is pass those costs on to consumers and consumers, households, Australians are getting the benefits of tax cuts and family payment increases.
So, what that means is nine in ten households are getting either tax cuts or the benefit of payment increases and almost six million households will get sufficient, but the amount of extra money they get is equal to or more than the expected impact of the flow through of carbon pricing on them.
HOST: Really interesting question from Philip from Yarwun. He says if the scheme goes ahead and we do actually use less coal powered energy, will the coal then stay in the ground or is it open to be exported.
PM: Coal mining is going to grow. We will continue to export a lot of coal. All of the Treasury modelling and expert advice shows that.
Perhaps the best way of thinking about that is yesterday in the newspapers we saw reported that a big coal company, big American coal company, Peabody, was there saying it wanted to engage in a takeover of an Australian coal company. The biggest takeover of a coal company the nation's ever seen.
They're going to do that even though they have heard all about carbon pricing on Sunday, because these very hard headed business people see a great future for coal in this country.
And Peabody, that's the same mining venture that Tony Abbot has been out saying well this is all going to close down, whereas the people who run that company are showing that they believe there's a great future in coal because they want to do this takeover.
HOST: The carbon policy was the demise of two political leaders in the past and as we have seen in the polls, your popularity is at an all time low. Will you be our Prime Minister at the next election?
PM: Yes, I will and I will be guiding the nation to a clean energy future. We need to get this done. Yes, we come to it after a long, divisive and sometimes very difficult debate. Now is the time to act, so in a great state like Queensland where you've got a great environment you want to keep for the future, we are doing what we can to cut carbon pollution for the future of the environment.
And, of course, with your great strong economy including your clean energy sources, we can see all of the investments that we want to see in clean energy, and Queensland is not called the sunshine state for nothing. Queensland has got a lot to gain from this clean energy future.
HOST: Are you concerned about your support in Queensland?
PM: I'm doing this because I believe it's right for the nation's future. I saw Tony Abbot on TV last night talking about his political life and the next election. For me, this isn't about the politics; it is about getting something done that is the right thing for our country's future.
Tackling climate change, cutting carbon pollution, doing the right thing by the environment and having a strong economy with the clean energy jobs of the future.
HOST: Prime Minister, I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.
PM: Thank you.