Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for the question, which is actually the same question that Senator Abetz has previously asked me. He has actually put that very quote to me before. Perhaps I could assist him with some other quotes. I make the point that, from my recollection, the paragraph Senator Abetz is referencing from that speech is part of the justification the government was putting forward for ensuring that there was appropriate transitional assistance to our emissions-intensive trade-exposed sector. In other words, what we were saying is that we do need to take account of what is occurring in the rest of the world and we do need to ensure that there is proper transitional assistance to support Australian jobs, and that is what we did. That is what we put in place under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme through negotiation and consultation with industry.

Senator Abetz can come in here and throw different quotes at us but I would say to him that we do have a fundamental difference between the two parties of government in this chamber: we think that we need to act on climate change; you do not. That is the difference: we think we need to act on climate change; you do not. What we have said very clearly is that we should ensure that we go through the process of designing the mechanism to do that with an eye very much to Australia’s national interest to ensure that we continue to support jobs through the transition as we are also creating jobs in the clean energy sector of the economy.

When it comes to China and other countries, those on the other side are very keen to suggest that no-one else is doing anything. But the facts simply do not stack up, as usual, when it comes to the coalition and climate change. The government has commissioned the Productivity Commission to put forward a report about what is occurring in other countries. I look forward to that report because it may help ensure that this is a debate that proceeds more on facts and less on fear. (Time expired)