Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I get to the substantive contribution, about the international linking of permits, that I would like to make to tonight's debate, I have to make a comment on that farcical claim of the member for Riverina that he stands shoulder to shoulder with the hard workers in the manufacturing sector, having today absolutely opposed a $300 million steel transformation package. When we are growing up we get great moral advice from our parents: beware the fake friends. That is what we have seen from the opposition: the fake friends of the working man and woman, shoulder to shoulder. The only time they would be shoulder to shoulder with you is when they were going to take something from you. That is the big difference between the policies on this side of the chamber and those on the other side of the chamber. The policies we see the Liberal-National coalition putting together would have every household in my electorate—indeed, every household in every electorate around the entire country—paying $1,300. They would take it out of the pockets of ordinary workers, with whom they would never stand shoulder to shoulder. And what do they propose to do with that? They would give it to the polluters. That is the truth of the scheme that is proposed by those who oppose us this evening.

Hypocrisy is rank in this place with the comments from those opposite. In December 2009 the member for Sturt, the Manager of Opposition Business, said:

… we took an emissions trading scheme to the last election. We believe in climate change action.

Those were his words. The member for Sturt said:

I believe passionately in climate change action.

Yet today we see them voting against a scheme that will ensure that we do respond to that climate change action. As a Labor member I am very proud to stand here and say that we will be making sure that, as this economy undertakes a significant shift towards a clean energy future, we position ourselves to take advantage of all the new clean industries that will emerge around the world in that new context. In contrast, we have those on the other side just pooh-poohing and being negative, saying, 'No, no, no'—a strident voice of opposition to any sense of the future with our participation in that new clean economy.

I want to get some facts on the record this evening. Australia's carbon price is going to be linked to carbon markets around the world and that will happen from the start of the flexible price period. It is important that Australians get some truth about what is going on, because those opposite are masters of misrepresentation of the program that we have organised well—and it is sitting right there, in all that legislation ready to bring forward. We will be allowing the reduction in carbon pollution to be pursued globally at the lowest cost. The Prime Minister today, I think, made the point that carbon pollution is absolutely not confined to national borders.

Mr Deputy Speaker Murphy, you might be of an age to remember a very powerful visual image in the 1960s. I think it was on the front cover of Life magazine when the Apollo trip to the moon looked back and took pictures of the earth. We saw the blue seas, we saw the green and brown land shapes and we saw that the entire planet is in fact connected—that we all breathe the same air. Because there are no national borders and carbon pollution is an international reality affecting the whole planet, international linking of carbon markets will allow businesses that release carbon in one country to be matched up with businesses in other countries that are able to reduce their carbon pollution at lower costs. This is very important because international linking encourages action to reduce carbon pollution around the whole world and plays an important role in helping not just advanced economies such as ours—a very successful economy; indeed, the envy of the world—but developing countries to adopt clean technologies. This international linking will start when the flexible price comes in on 1 July 2015. I look forward to making more comments about this as the evening progresses.

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