Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The dynamics of the Liberal Party party room and the joint party room is of direct relevance to what happens in the Senate. The reason we know what happens there is that you leak it all out. That is why we all know—and we know within an hour of it occurring. As my colleague said, there are in fact many emissions from those opposite when it comes to the way in which they leak from their own party room.

The next leader of the Liberal Party, the member for Higgins, said in the party room recently that the two things they have got to do is stand against action on climate change and support Work Choices. What have we seen in the most recent few months? Precisely that course of action being supported here in the chamber. The leadership of the current Leader of the Opposition has been fundamentally undermined by his inability to stand up to the climate change sceptics in his own party. The reason those opposite are silent during this debate is they know it to be true. It is exactly what has transpired.

Let us go to the current position of those opposite, which is that action should be deferred on climate change pending—wait for it—another review. Let us quickly go to the evolving position of the Liberal Party on this question. What did they say back in December 2007? The then spokesman said, ‘We will set both medium- and long-term targets after the Garnaut review.’ The Garnaut review was on 30 September 2008. Then they went on to say, ‘We won’t set any figures until we see the government’s modelling.’ Treasury modelling was released on 30 October 2008. Then they said, ‘We will look at what the government comes up with in its white paper and see what the Treasury modelling is when it comes out.’ Well, that was released on 15 December 2008. Then they said that they would take a position after the Pearce report was delivered—that is their own internal inquiry. The Pearce report apparently delivered its findings on 30 April 2009. Then we had the member for Goldstein say, ‘Well, we’ll finally sort out our alternative once the Senate inquiry has been concluded.’ The Senate inquiry, they have ensured, has been delayed until 15 June 2009. Then they say it is going to happen once we have a Productivity Commission inquiry. There is no fixed date. What you have here is a rolling series of excuses to underpin the fact that the Leader of the Opposition has not had the courage to take on the climate change sceptics in his own party. It is an absolute failure of leadership on his part and he knows it.

What Australia is looking for at present on climate change and what the business community is looking for on climate change is certainty. They have called publicly for certainty. When you look at the statements by the Australian Industry Group and by the Business Council of Australia, they want certainty for the future, and the Leader of the Opposition in response to this call for business certainty has simply gone missing. When those in the broader Australian community want action at Copenhagen to provide Australia with some hope of appropriately helping to protect the Barrier Reef and Kakadu in the long term, the Leader of the Opposition has gone missing. All Australians wanted this Leader of the Opposition to stand up and to defy the climate change sceptics in his own party, but instead of acting in the national interest he is acting in the narrow interest of the Liberal Party all the way through this.

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