Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

And—and I hear a Labor senator interjecting—if it is still the greatest moral challenge of our time, take the parliament to a double dissolution on it.

Of course, what this shows us again is that the Labor Party will say and do anything to win votes. In 2007 the CPRS was the greatest moral challenge of our time, but when focus groups started telling them that the Australian people did not believe it, the greatest moral challenge of our time was discarded like a used tissue by the Labor Party. Where is the morality in that? Where is the integrity in that? There is nil—absolutely none. We in the coalition said that there were problems and it would make good sense to wait until there was international agreement. That was such a morally bankrupt position to hold before Copenhagen, yet now all of a sudden it makes very good sense to have this position until not only after Copenhagen and the next election but the one after that as well. We will not be getting a scheme now under Labor until 2013.