Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I think this is fundamentally a net zero question, and you might recall—

Well, of course it is.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Okay, perhaps we should just go back to basics. When you try to reduce emissions in your country, you also have to look at what is happening elsewhere, and, when you have emissions-intensive industries, you obviously have to look at their competitiveness and consider that in terms of your domestic mechanisms. That's the basic economics of it. That has been taken into account in the safeguard mechanism. You might recall that previously the government has consulted with those industries for whom these are issues, and we'll continue, I'm sure, in the context of the setting of the next target, to consult with industries that are affected.