PM: I'm here today with Jenny Macklin and we're actually in her local electorate, so thank you very much Jenny, and to everybody who has come in to say hello today.
It is 1 July, carbon pricing starts today, and Australians can look around and see the sky hasn't fallen in.
For Australians right around the country they'll be going about their ordinary Sunday. Maybe some time with family and friends. But as Australians go about their ordinary Sunday, our nation is seizing a new future.
From today, our big businesses that generate carbon pollution will have to pay a price for generating that pollution.
From today, we will be seizing a clean energy future. And from today millions of Australians will see tax cuts. From their next pay packet they'll be able to look into that pay packet and see more money for them and less for the taxman.
From today Australians will be able to judge for themselves rather than listening to the politicians. They will have the evidence before their eyes to judge what carbon pricing means for them and their family.
They'll be able to judge all of the claims that have been made.
Is the Sunday roast now costing $100? They'll be able to judge that. Has the coal industry closed down? They'll be able to judge that. Is my weekly shop now 20 per cent more expensive? They'll be able to judge that. Has Australia entered a permanent depression? They'll be able to judge that.
Of course, all of these claims are reckless and false. What Australians will see from carbon pricing is that we will seize a clean energy future; millions of Australians will see tax cuts, many of them around $300.
Australians will see the benefits of going to work because the tax free threshold will be tripled from $6,200 to $18,000. That means that people will see more money in their pay packet as a result of going to work.
And our pensioners and people raising kids will continue to see extra pension benefits and extra family payment benefits.
People will be able to reflect on the past twelve months - all of the claims that have been made - and you will be able to judge for yourself.
And in the months ahead, I think as the dust settles from this debate, Australians will be able to see that we've done the right thing to tackle climate change and seize a clean energy future.
The right thing to protect our strong economy, to have prosperity in the future, and to do the best we can for our very precious environment.
I'm very happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: PM, you have been saying for while, the Government has been saying for a while that today is a game changer. How confident are you that Labor's fortunes will improve from now on?
PM: This is about the nation's future. What changes today is that people will be able to judge for themselves. Rather than listening to the reckless claims that have been made, they will be able to judge carbon pricing for themselves.
And with carbon pricing starting, our biggest polluters will be paying the price of their pollution and families, pensioners, taxpayers will see benefits.
JOURNALIST: How can you be sure that Tony Abbott wouldn't get rid of the tax if elected?
PM: Mr Abbott has promised to rip away tax cuts, pension increases and family payment increases. The only thing that is sure about Mr Abbott's promises is he has promised and confirmed today that the tax cuts you are seeing for the first time this week will be taken away by him if he's ever Prime Minister.
That he'll take way the benefits pensioners are seeing. He'll take away the increases in family payments. That's his promise to Australians. All the rest will degenerate into a fiddle and a fudge.
After all, Mr Abbott ran in the 2007 election on a platform of putting a price on carbon.
JOURNALIST: Every single price rise is going to be blamed by the Opposition on the carbon tax for the next year. How are you going to win that battle?
PM: Well, what your question assumes is that the Opposition continues its wild and reckless claims.
If the Opposition continues making wild and reckless claims, and I expect that they will, I think people will judge whether they've been upfront and credible over the more than twelve months since we announced the details of carbon pricing.
More than twelve months ago we announced the details and people will look at the claims the Opposition has made since and say "Have they been upfront? Have they been credible?"
Was it credible to claim a roast was going to cost $100? Was it credible to claim that the coal industry was going to shut down? Was it credible to say Australia was entering a permanent depression?
And if people find that those claims lack credibility, that they've all been wrong, then I expect they'll be pretty sceptical about future claims from the Opposition.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the carbon tax has defined a lot of your time as Prime Minister. In regards to being a game changer, what about a game changer for Labor? Do you think from this point on it will change the way that voters see your party?
PM: I'm not a poll commentator, but we didn't do this because of the opinion polls.
We did it for the nation's future. And when we look at the nation's future, I believe in the months to come Australians will look back and realise this was the right decision for our environment, the right decision for our economy, the right decision for the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, about 300 companies I think are paying the carbon tax at the moment, or pay $23 a ton. It was meant to be about 500. If the Government doesn't reach the 500 target, will this put any pressure on the compensation that's being paid?
PM: No, not at all. The assistance that we're providing families, the tax cuts, the pension increases, the family payment increases are locked in.
JOURNALIST: Do you accept that the next election will come down to a referendum on the carbon tax?
PM: I believe the next election will be about who's got the best plans for the nation's future, who can keep our economy strong, and can share the benefits of that economic strength, and who's best positioned to keep preparing our nation for the future.
JOURNALIST: The mining tax also-
PM: Also starts today.
JOURNALIST: That's right Prime Minister. What can we expect from that?
PM: What people will see from the mining tax is that our biggest and most profitable miners will pay more and everyone will benefit around the country.
They will see us sharing the benefits of the mining boom.
Our economy is very strong compared with economies right around the world, and I believe Australians understand that as they look at the American economy, what's happening in the UK, what's happening across Europe.
But for many Australians they haven't been feeling those benefits in their own lives.
We want to take that economic strength and share it in increased family payments for people doing the hard work of bringing up kids, in increased superannuation for working Australians, and in better infrastructure, particularly for our mining communities who are seeing the benefits of growth but also the stresses and strains it can bring.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there are some suggestions this morning that Labor MPs are calling for TPVs to be re-introduced and Malaysia to be scrapped. Have any Labor MPs - have your colleagues - been telling you this? That TPVs should come back and Malaysia should go as an impasse to asylum seekers?
PM: No, not at all. And let's just be clear about the position the Government has taken here.
We don't want to see people risking their lives at sea, and potentially further tragedies. We want to do everything we can to avoid that.
We've been prepared to compromise in order to get that done. We believe the Malaysia agreement will send the strongest message of deterrence to people smugglers.
But, in order to get change, to make sure that we can send a message of deterrence, we've said we'd implement the Malaysia agreement, we've accepted the Opposition's plan to open a detention centre on Nauru, and we've said we would send the question of whether TPVs work to an expert committee.
We've already announced that, and unfortunately, to all of that, Mr Abbott has just said no.
JOURNALIST: Just very quickly on that issue about the multi-party committee, have the terms of references - when are you planning to release those terms of references for the politicians to have a look at?
PM: I've invited parliamentary colleagues to join a reference group that the expert panel we've set up could consult with. That's its mission.
JOURNALIST: But the Opposition says they won't join that group unless they see the terms of reference of the specific multi-party group. At the moment haven't the terms of reference just simply been for the three panel members?
PM: No, that's not true. I wrote to the Leader of the Opposition, to the Leader of the Australian Greens, to Independents, explaining that we had established the expert panel and that we wanted a reference group of Members of Parliament to work with it.
That offer is clearly outlined in the letters that I sent.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you must be relieved that today is the day. What's next?
PM: Well we've got a lot more to do. And you're right that our nation's debate has been very consumed by putting a price on carbon.
That debate didn't start last year; we've been debating that since before the 2007 election when both Prime Minister Howard and the then Leader of the Opposition Kevin Rudd went to the election saying that they would put a price on carbon.
Our nation's debated putting a price on carbon for a lot of years. We've debated it very intensively in the last year.
Now we've got it done, and we've got so much more to do including building a National Disability Insurance Scheme, continuing our education reforms by better funding Australian schools and making sure our nation is ready and poised to seize all of the benefits that are going to come with this century of change and growth in our region.
So that's what's on our agenda next, but for today, we will be out explaining putting a price on carbon and the tax cuts that start today and the ability of Australians from today to judge it for themselves.
JOURNALIST: So how are you feeling today? Relieved that they're finally at this point, or-
PM: I'm feeling like I do every day, full of enthusiasm.
Thank you very much.