Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

One of those questions in that series of questions really said it all, didn’t it? Fundamentally, there is a cabal of those opposite that simply do not accept the science. They hold extreme views—views that might be common on a One Nation website but are not common among the scientists who are experts in this field. Fundamentally, every question that some of the people in this chamber are asking about this issue—and the good senator who asked the question is one of them—proceeds on the basis that they do not accept the science. We do not agree. We do believe that the consensus science is very clear. It is extraordinary that those opposite, who pretend to know something about risk, would seriously say to the Australian people, ‘Yes, we know that there are all these world renowned scientists who tell us about the risk that climate change poses not just for today but for the next generation, for Australians beyond today’—all of the scientific evidence—yet still say we do not have to do anything. ‘We do not have to do anything; we think our political advantage is in running a scaremongering campaign, a fearmongering campaign, and closing our eyes to this challenge.’ You believe that that is the responsible thing to do. We on this side of the chamber do not share that view. We believe that climate change is real, that human beings are contributing to it and that we in this nation have a responsibility to act, not just because of today but because of tomorrow and what it means to future generations of Australians. This is a tough reform. We know this is a tough reform. So was tariff reform, but Labor did that. (Time expired)