Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

and the Australian people can spot that at 100 paces. In this case, Prime Minister, we are not just dealing with an idle matter of politics which is relevant today and gone tomorrow. We are dealing with the fundamental question of the sustainability of life on the planet. We are concerned about the fundamental question of what environment we bequeath to our kids. We are concerned about the impact which climate change, left unaddressed, will have on the economy, on our businesses, on the entire fabric of the Australian way of life. When it comes to our quality of life, our access to beaches, waterfronts et cetera, this is a challenge which goes to the heart and soul of what Australia is all about.

And guess what has happened? We have had in this place a Prime Minister who, for 11 years, has stood in this place and been a rolled-gold climate change denier. Earlier we described him as a ‘climate change sceptic’. There is one place you graduate to from being a climate change sceptic and that is to the status of being a climate change denier. But suddenly what we discover is that there has been a change.

What is the change that has caused our Prime Minister to have his Damascus-road experience on the question of climate change? Could it be something to do with Crosby and Textor? Could it possibly be something to do with opinion polls? Could it possibly be to do with someone having their ear to the electoral ground, 3½ months before this Prime Minister has to call an election, and him saying, ‘Jeez—we’ve got a problem here! And what are we going to do about it? How do we convince the Australian people that I, John Winston Howard, am suddenly convinced about a proposition I have spent the previous 11 years denying?’

He is going to talk later this week about emissions trading. In 2003, Prime Minister, your cabinet considered a submission on this. The Prime Minister knows that. It is a fact. It is an inescapable, proven fact that the Prime Minister, four years ago, had a submission before him on emissions trading which was rejected in toto. You took no action—

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