Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Cox. Well, I've seen that business groups, including the Business Council of Australia and the Minerals Council of Australia, along with environmental groups like Greenpeace, have backed our announcement today that we are bringing forward these reforms. While on this side of the chamber we are united in protecting the environment, those sitting over there are still debating whether climate change is real. At the weekend we had the extraordinary moment at the LNP Queensland convention where federal LNP members led the charge to dump net zero. Senator Canavan was there saying he had to pinch himself, he was that happy. He was saying there were just five hands in favour of net zero out of 600 members present and that 'any leader of our political parties would want to be in tune with our members'. I wonder if one of those five hands belonged to Senator Scarr, because yesterday on radio Senator Scarr said, 'The views expressed at conventions aren't binding on the parliamentary party' and that it was a resolution against net zero mandates—it's a bit more nuanced than what certain other people have said. (Time expired)