Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

We as a government have always been consistent in relation to this very important issue. The important situation for those opposite to take in mind is that you cannot simply pick and choose bits and pieces of people’s quotations. The good Dr Ziggy whom Senator Webber seeks to quote is also somebody who has put on the table for our consideration nuclear power as an answer to reducing greenhouse gases—a proposal that the Labor Party are refusing to accept or consider in any way, shape or form. Therefore, if she wants to rely on the good Dr Ziggy, can I suggest that she accepts all of his medicine, which of course does include nuclear power.

What is also very interesting in relation to this is that we as a government were concerned about climate change and, as a result, we set up the Greenhouse Office in 1998. Since that time, those opposite have asked 34 questions in relation to greenhouse gases and global warming. That seems to be a pretty good number of questions, until such time as you ask: when were they actually asked in this place? Out of the 34 questions since 1998, 30 of them have been asked in the past 12 months. Year after year has gone by since 1998 without the Labor Party asking a single question on this very important issue. We on this side, however, raised the issue via dorothy dixers on 44 occasions. In other words, we have been engaging on this topic on a regular basis, unlike those opposite, who discovered it about 12 months ago, some eight or nine years after we established the Greenhouse Office. Now they are asking all the questions and unfortunately have conned some in the media gallery that they are somehow the champions of this issue. They are not. They are Kevin-come-latelies to this issue, very much Kevin-come-latelies. The people of Australia know that we have to deal with the issue of climate change, given the report of the prime ministerial task force, in a way that embraces the global community—