Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dawson for his question. Indeed, I was up in his electorate just a week ago opening one of the projects that we have brought forward as part of the Economic Stimulus Plan. Indeed, we on this side of the House support nation building, and we have ensured that the nation-building program we have established will not only be good for future productivity but also be a part of the action dealing with climate change, because what investment in rail, particularly urban rail, does is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. So we are using a whole-of-government approach to deal with climate change. But, of course, we recognise that you cannot have a piecemeal approach. In order to move to a carbon constrained economy, you need a price signal for the long term, which is why we support the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

But, of course, the Leader of the Opposition has repeatedly stated that he wants to cancel the final stage of the Economic Stimulus Plan, and he has labelled the multibillion-dollar investment in the nation’s road, urban public rail and port infrastructure as ‘low-quality spending’. His finance spokesperson, Senator Joyce, has gone even further, telling Sky News on 10 December:

Well I think the whole … stimulus package was not warranted in the form it went out. I think the stimulus package was inappropriate.

It is pretty clear that they were planning deep cuts to infrastructure spending before this week. But we now know that they have to find money to fund their $10 billion climate change con including $3.2 billion over the forward estimates. What we now know is that not only have the climate sceptics taken over over there, the market sceptics have taken over over there as well. You wonder where this inspiration comes from. John Howard looked to Menzies for inspiration. We know that Peter Costello looked in the mirror for inspiration. Brendan Nelson looked to the ALP for inspiration. Malcolm Turnbull looked to George Souris for inspiration and now we have the new Leader of the Opposition with his source of inspiration—the mad monk meets Lord Monckton. Both of them denying the science—

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