Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have been in committee now for nearly three hours and the opposition have asked one question in that time, maybe two if we are lucky. For Senator Macdonald to make a point of order, when it is up to the opposition to ask the questions in this committee time—

Opposition senators interjecting—

You have had three hours so far. You have asked one or maybe two questions. Senator Birmingham has not even moved his amendment. He has one tiny little amendment to change a date and he still has not even moved it. Maybe he wants to string it out because it is the only thing they have going over there.

The business community, which I thought those opposite cared about, want certainty when it comes to transforming the Australian economy into a clean energy economy. That is what these bills do. That is what the clean energy package addresses. It provides that certainty to business. It provides certainty so that they can move and transform their businesses into that clean energy space, as so many other parts of the world are doing and have done, as so many other businesses in other parts of the world are doing and have done. The coalition would have us believe that, despite all the work Senator Wong has taken you through this time and previously in this place to do with the detail in the package, we are not moving Australia into a clean energy future, that in fact it is all just a big tax on individuals rather than a tax on 500 polluters. The fact that they continue to mislead the public shows that they have no care for the economics. They have no care for the fact that business are transferring to a clean energy economy. They have no care for the economics and no care for the social factors in relation to this bill.