Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This is the last election, Senator Brandis, and that was your policy. It was your policy until about three months ago. Mr President, you cannot have a debate in this chamber about the government’s climate change programs without including the ETS and the CPRS more generally. The Greens conveniently forget that. It is conveniently dropped off the list of issues when they are talking about programs that this government has implemented to address the effects of climate change. I think there is a lot of cheek involved in the moving of this motion. There is not a lot of seriousness; there is not a lot of gravity. There has been no real effort to justify the very serious charge involved in moving a censure motion against a government.

This party, this government, is very proud of its record in environmental issues in its two years in government. We promised we would sign the Kyoto Protocol, and we did. We promised we would move to introduce a carbon pollution reduction scheme and emissions trading in this country, and we have consistently attempted to deliver on that commitment. In addition to those measures, we have introduced a whole range of other initiatives that have sought to improve homes by improving energy efficiency through increasing access to solar hot water systems and phasing out incandescent light bulbs, and there have been improvements in energy efficiency standards. No doubt Senator Wong will run through the many, many things we have done to improve support for our environment and improve and tackle climate change. This is not a serious attempt to deal with those issues. It is a stunt, and it is not one that should be supported by the Senate. The government will treat it with contempt because we do not take it seriously.