Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I was young, my father had an adage, and he would use it if you were going down in a ridiculous cause. He said: 'There was a person who was trying to train their horse—break in their horse—to eat rocks. They'd just about done it, and the damn thing died, and that's what happens when you pursue a cause for which there is no real result.' Net zero is part of that. If we continue on this path, you'll just about get there and the economy will be dead, but, long before that, it's going to be incredibly sick. Now we're hearing people talking about how the metals industry is going, the plastics industry is gone, the glass industry is gone, we're propping up the aluminium industry and the fertiliser industry is gone. It is not working. Power prices are going through the roof, and pensioners are becoming poorer. This is a total fool's errand.

The argument that's sometimes used is that it will offend other people in certain seats. I'll give you another example of something that offends people in seats and which we're not allowed to go anywhere near. That is removing the curfew on Mascot airport. Apparently, that would be absolute dynamite if you ever did it, and so we never even consider it. I would suggest that the people who may like the idea of net zero are also the same people who don't like the curfew on Sydney airport, and I note how much political pressure that has because of Grayndler, Cook, Warringah and Wentworth. I'll finalise this by saying this thing is national but, for me, it's terribly personal. (Time expired)

See this speech in context