Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have listened to the honourable member for Higgins, and she talked about being guillotined. She did not make a bad fist of it tonight in speaking. She had two goes, and I am sure she will come back for some more goes. It is just utter nonsense that we are listening to.

This amendment moved by the Leader of the Opposition is only designed to delay the start of the carbon price. That is all it is designed to do. The government cannot support this amendment. I cannot support this amendment. The people in my electorate of Page want the certainty that this package of legislation is bringing. I have spoken to some of the people tonight, and they are pleased that it is happening.

They talk about delays. Let me tell you about delays and what has happened. This is the culmination of a debate that has been running for almost two decades. I repeat: two decades. We have seen 35 parliamentary inquiries into climate change since 1994. We have had a lot of discussion on these topics in this House already. This year alone there have been 225 questions asked on carbon pricing and over 15 separate MPI debates—more debacles than debates, but for form's sake I will call them debates. The clean energy debate has taken some 33 hours. There have been 120 speakers. Again, I ask: is that being guillotined? Significantly, this has been a longer debate than the former Howard coalition government allowed for the GST, for Work Choices and for the sale of Telstra—significant issues indeed, as is this one. Mind you, it is not as if we have not talked about this before. When I listen to the opposition it is a bit like being trapped in that movie Groundhog Day. They just wake up, they come in here and they trot out the same old stuff. At least in Groundhog Day the lead character woke up every day more accomplished, more informed and more intelligent. I do not see that happening on the other side but that is what it feels like.

The time to act is now. That is what the government is doing. We must begin the transformation to a low-carbon economy, and this transformation begins with the passage of the clean energy bills. We have to put in place the incentive for business to invest in the clean energy technologies that will allow Australia to maintain its economic growth while cutting pollution. It is about being competitive. I am sure the opposition do not understand. Their only competition is really with the opposition leader wanting to come into this place in another position; it is about his job. The countries that pioneer the clean technologies that will allow this decoupling to occur will be the countries that see strong and consistent economic growth through the next century. These will be the countries that will be the most competitive. That is what this is about. It is about keeping Australia competitive.

The alternative of the Leader of the Opposition's prescription is to do nothing. It is about pretending that climate change is not happening—heads buried totally in the sand—and it is about attacking the scientists who say that climate change is occurring and attacking the economists who state that a carbon price is the most efficient way of tackling the problem. I know there are many on the opposite side who believe that. By refusing to grapple with the challenges and opportunities of a carbon-constrained world—and that is what this clean energy package will transition us to—the Leader of the Opposition would rather see our economy stagnate and fall behind those of our competitors, as long as his political interests are served. That is how it looks to me and that is how it is increasingly looking to many others.

Now that the Leader of the Opposition can see that he will not be able to stop this important reform, he attempts to delay it. Just get on with it. It is time to just do it. It is happening. This again betrays his inability to put the interests of the nation above his own narrow political interest. The fact is that we know that any delay to this important reform will not magically make it less costly. In fact, it will only increase the costs. Various studies have looked into the implications of delaying the introduction of a carbon price and all conclude that such delay is costly. We cannot ignore them. We ignore them at our peril. In addition, federal Treasury have consistently stated that delaying this crucial reform will only increase the costs of separating— (Time expired)

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