Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Let me say right upfront that I reject the final premise of the question. First of all, I don't share Senator Di Natale's optimism about a unity ticket between the coalition and the Labor Party when it comes to doing the right thing by the environment in a way that is economically responsible. The second point I would make is that, 10 years ago today, the Greens had a rare moment of insight when they decided to back our position, which is to protect the environment in a way that is economically responsible. The only party that has been consistent all the way through is actually the Liberal-National party. We have been consistent all the way through, over the last 10 years. We have consistently said we support effective action on climate change in a way that is economically responsible.

From Labor, we had the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Then we had the promise: 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.' Remember that? Then, of course, we got the carbon tax. We had the Greens supporting our position against the CPRS and then we had them supporting the carbon tax that was never meant to come, which was, of course, a great deceit against the Australian people. Let me tell you: we will continue to act consistently and in the best interests of the Australian people by meeting and exceeding our emissions reduction targets that were agreed to in Kyoto and, indeed, by implementing our plan to meet our emissions reduction targets agreed to in Paris. We will not be sending jobs and emissions overseas where, for the same level of economic outputs, emissions will actually be higher. It absolutely makes no sense to impose sacrifices on the Australian people that actually would make the situation worse when it comes to global emissions. Shifting the problem from Australia to other parts of the world where emissions will be higher for the same level of economic output might make sense in the minds of the Greens today, though it didn't 10 years ago. It doesn't make any sense at all to senators on the Liberal-National side.