Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. I am really pleased that between Senator Milne and myself we have been able to lift the spirits of Her Majesty's most loyal opposition. Let me repeat: this government has not and never has disputed the science of climate change. We are committed to effective action on climate change, but we understand, like the Australian people understand, that the Labor-Greens carbon tax, the biggest economy-wide carbon tax in the world, is not effective action on climate change. We on this side of the chamber understand, and the people across Australia understand and have voted that way at the last election. Your carbon tax, Labor's carbon tax, imposed on the Australian people by the Labor Party and the Greens, just pushes up the cost of electricity, pushes up the cost of living, pushes up the cost of doing business, makes Australian businesses less competitive than businesses overseas, shifts emissions to other parts of the world along with economic activity and jobs, shifts emissions to other parts of world where for the same amount of economic output those emissions will be higher than they otherwise would have been. The Labor-Green—

Honourable senators interjecting—