John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The reason why I believe the Australian people will believe me is that I have a track record of putting the jobs of Australians ahead of anything else, and that is what I will continue to do. Quite frankly, I wonder at the view taken by many on the other side—not all; not the member for Batman or the member for Hunter, who also has a very distinguished record in relation to these matters. The member for Hunter has been astute enough to point out that if you introduce a national emissions trading system, you have to abandon the MRETs. I wonder if that is a view shared by the member for Kingsford Smith. I wonder if it is a view shared by the Leader of the Opposition.

Back when the energy white paper was introduced, we looked at whether we would increase the MRETs. We decided against that because we thought it was better to invest in low emission technology. The investment in that low emission technology has led not only to an investment in clean coal technology but also to an investment near Mildura, Victoria, which represents the largest investment in solar energy anywhere in the world, and that is a product of the policies of this government. I can say to the Leader of the Opposition that we will put the jobs of Australians ahead of ideology in responding to this issue.

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