Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

and we are already moving to embrace this future. The government has already moved to ensure that 50,000 Australians get an opportunity in green jobs and green training opportunities and we have moved to provide $200 million through our teaching and learning capital fund to enable our vocational education and training system to get ready for training in areas like green plumbing, EcoSmart electricians, efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning and the work that will need to be done on hybrid cars. I am pleased to be able to announce at the forthcoming COAG meeting that right around the nation there will be agreement on a new National Green Skills Agreement, which is about making sure that our training system is ready for the jobs of the future and that even the most traditional trades have their training arrangements updated for new green skills.

As the nation moves forward and embraces the future, getting ready for the green economy of the future, of course we find the Liberal and National parties stuck in the past—in climate change denial, scepticism and inaction. They are stuck in the past, they are divided and they are unable to imagine how they can get to this new green future. Of course, the answer is obvious: get out of the way and support the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and work with those Australians who are readying themselves for the future. The opposition, including the member for O’Connor, stay firmly in the past where the dinosaurs are. They still think that is appropriate. Australians are marching past them in their embrace of the future. It is time that they got out of the way and passed the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

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