Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition government is telling the Australian people to 'tighten their belts'. Its first budget has slashed funds from every department and program imaginable, yet this same government is planning to throw billions of dollars down the drain to fund their ineffective Direct Action Plan. The world needs real action on climate change, not ineffective policies thrown around in an attempt to appease voters.

Labor's carbon pricing system has been effective both environmentally and economically. Since its introduction on 1 July 2012, Labor's carbon price has reduced the emissions from our electricity sector by around 7.6 per cent, while the economy has continued to grow and Australia has retained its AAA credit rating.

Officials from around the world are now urging the Prime Minister not to make Australia the first country to go backwards on climate change, but the Prime Minister is steaming ahead in his crusade to dismantle the only real action on climate change Australia has ever had, despite being ridiculed all around the world for it.

Recently in the United States President Obama announced his radical new plan to bring about emission reductions in the US. Unsurprisingly, he will not be paying polluters, as this government proposes to do, but instead will be creating a system similar to an emissions trading scheme. This issue is gaining momentum and the Prime Minister is going to be left behind if he does not accept the reality of our situation soon and develop some real policies, to deal with this very real issue.

And so wrote Tory Townsend, who has been doing work experience in my office this week. This issue impacts him greatly.