Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I was making the point that the opposition leader's opposition to international trade extends to trading internationally in carbon permits, because in fact he believes, almost uniquely within this parliament—the member for Ryan probably agrees with him—that one tonne of carbon weighs, wait for it, nothing. This is the alternative Prime Minister of Australia. He says:

See, one of the things that people haven't quite twigged to is that carbon dioxide is invisible, it's weightless and it's odourless. How are we going to police these emissions…

It is weightless, yet he has promised to cut emissions of a gas, that he describes as weightless, by 140 million tonnes. A 140 million tonnes of weightless gas! He is going to be going pretty hard to do that, isn't he? He is going to cut emissions by 140 million tonnes of weightless gas! I do not always agree with the member for Wentworth but I agree with this statement of his. He said:

Carbon dioxide does obviously have a weight, and if you drop a large lump of dry ice on your foot, you'll find that out very quickly.

He is right. I think he would like to drop a large tonne of dry ice somewhere else—perhaps on the opposition leader's head.

See this speech in context