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

I am taken aback by the outburst. Is it anti-Americanism on the part of those opposite? I am a bit puzzled by that. This is a strange world in which we live. We are now supposed to have a united position on climate change—both sides of the House have indicated which way they are going—yet each time I raise the issue of climate change there is a cacophony on the part of those opposite, who are still out there lurking in the dark with the international league of climate change conspirators, believing that it is all one big communist plot. But today it gets worse. When I indicate to the House that the President of the United States has invited me to go to Washington next Monday to discuss the Copenhagen agenda, somehow that is bad news. I would have thought that it is a good thing for the Australia-US relationship. I would have thought it is a good thing for our combined action on climate change. I would think that it is a good thing in terms of the alliance between our two great democracies. The fact that we are currently in the field with the Americans in Afghanistan and elsewhere underlines the closeness of our relationship.

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