Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is important and pertinent to this debate to recognise that this chamber blocked the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The Rudd Labor government has had to cop this chamber’s decision at the expense of the environment and at the expense of getting our economy on the right footing for a carbon constrained future, and the public are entitled to know how this came about. They are entitled to know just who was responsible for this lost opportunity and who was not. It is legitimate to express our frustration and anger at this decision and others taken by this chamber. It is legitimate to remind the Australian people why it is that we are without the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, a scheme that after the last election Australian people believed and had a right to expect would be implemented.

I have also been asked by students who were expecting access to much-needed student income support why it languished in this place for so long. I have had to explain to them that the Senate left them in limbo over the summer period and, alarmingly, right into the first semester of this year. So it is stating the obvious that the Prime Minister’s view on these questions may not always accord with those opposite. It is surely no surprise to any of us.