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

Here in this parliament we face the extraordinary spectacle of those opposite, having voted down the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, now blaming the Australian government for not passing the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. That is the ultimate irony of the proposition which they put. When the member for Wentworth negotiated the passage of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, the Leader of the Opposition stood up and said, ‘This country needs a carbon pollution reduction scheme.’ He said that it needed an ETS now, and then he spotted the political opportunity to assassinate the member for Wentworth, and that is what he then proceeded to do. On one occasion they voted it down; on a second occasion they voted against it, and then they did so again.

At Copenhagen, the rest of the world sought to bring about an agreement; here in Australia they barracked in the hope that Copenhagen would fail. The government, notwithstanding the opposition from those opposite, remains committed to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, we intend to get on with the job of ensuring that we can bring about necessary action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But there is one thing we cannot change, and that is that this Leader of the Opposition stood up and assassinated his predecessor—

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