House debates

Monday, 23 May 2011

Questions without Notice

Climate Change

2:24 pm

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting

This is very important information and I am not at all surprised by some of the jeering that has broken out on the other side, because senior members of the coalition, like Senator Nick Minchin, have come out against this report and confirmed their climate change denial. We know that the Leader of the Opposition stays in climate change denial, which is why he is prepared to go around and front a scheme that the member for Wentworth has rightly said cannot work and would be hugely costly. They are the actions of someone in climate change denial. We would say to the Leader of the Opposition that he should be pursuing the example of conservatives that are trying to lead for the future, like Prime Minister Cameron in the United Kingdom, who has announced very deep cuts in carbon pollution and who has said that this will position the UK as a leading player in the global low-carbon economy, creating significant new industries and jobs.

This report confirms that climate change is real, that to tackle climate change we must cut carbon pollution, and that the most efficient way of cutting carbon pollution is to put a price on carbon. I am determined and the government is determined that we will do just that. We will not succumb to the Leader of the Opposition and his team's climate change denial nor will we follow him down the path of a costly scheme that cannot work. We will price carbon. It is a critical decade and it is a critical year for those who believe in climate change.

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