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

We will proceed with this policy because it is about the long-term strength of the Australian economy and because you cannot be a first-rate economy in years to come unless you move to cleaner energy, unless you are a clean-energy economy. That is why so many nations of the world are putting so much investment into clean energy, into generating energy more efficiently and more cleanly and into industrial and other processes becoming more energy efficient. The reality is the world is increasingly paying a higher premium for low-carbon goods and services, for clean-energy goods and services, and we on this side want to make sure Australians are positioned to take advantage of those opportunities. The difference is those on this side are prepared to look to the future and those on that side simply want to run a scare campaign today.