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

Thank you very much, Mr President. I take Senator Di Natale's word for his weather report. But what I can say to Senator Di Natale is that jacking up taxes or jacking up the cost of energy for Australian families and Australian businesses and just sending emissions and jobs overseas does nothing to address climate change or reduce temperatures in Australia or indeed in other parts of the world. In fact, I remember sitting on that side of the chamber when Labor and the Greens came up with this incredibly ingenious plan that would actually increase overall global emissions, because you were just going to shift economic activity and jobs to other parts of the world. For the same level of economic output, emissions were going to be higher than they would have been if that particular task was performed in Australia.

I look forward to the regular weather report from Senator Di Natale, but I can also reassure him that, on this side of the chamber, we will not be punishing the Australian people and doing something that doesn't make any difference at all. We'll continue to pursue our policy agenda to address climate change in a responsible, economically sensible and environmentally effective fashion.