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

Labor's carbon tax just shifts emissions to other parts of the world, where the emissions will be higher for the same amount of economic output whereas what we are doing through our emissions reduction fund is reducing emissions in Australia in a way that actually achieves a net reduction in global emissions. That is why our policy is environmentally superior.

It is also superior economically because it does not disadvantage Australian businesses, and it seeks to leverage the capacity, in particular, of the agricultural industry to help us in achieving emissions reductions. So our policy, clearly, all the way round, is a superior policy. I would just add here that the agricultural and fishing industries in particular have helped us achieve emissions reduction of about 55 per cent over the past decade also. This is our policy, to achieve emissions reduction in Australia in a way that achieves action on genuine emissions reduction in the world. (Time expired)