Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Hughes asked me to consider alternative policies. There are no alternative policies on water from the opposition. The $10 billion national plan had no counterpart in the Labor Party’s repertoire. When it was announced the member for Kingsford Smith said—and I was sitting right here, listening to him intently—‘It’s Labor Party policy.’ I could not find it, and neither could he. He had as much difficulty proving that misstatement as he did with the solar panel rebate. The opposition’s policy on climate change is a unilateral 60 per cent reduction in emissions in Australia by 2050. It proposes to do that regardless of what the rest of the world does. If the member for Kingsford Smith had read the IPCC report published recently, he would be aware of the lengthy discussion on the problems of one country imposing restrictions and the carbon emissions just leaking over to other countries. There would be no gain to the world. There would be massive economic loss in that country.

Global warming needs a global solution. We are committed to a global solution and we are working towards it. We are not going to devastate the Australian economy in a futile, ideological gesture that is more about gratifying the prejudices of the member for Kingsford Smith and his colleagues than achieving the outcomes the world needs.

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