Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am surprised that the Leader of the National Party when he was a minister in the previous cabinet did not put that question to the minister for the environment who then (a) supported the introduction of an emissions trading scheme and (b) said that the transport sector should be included. What policy are we now debating against those opposite—the one last year or the one this year? This government intends to proceed responsibly to ensure that we maintain Australia’s global economic competitiveness to ensure that Australian working families and individuals are supported through any transition which occurs in the economy. They were our principles in the past and will continue to be our principles in the future—unlike those opposite. I say to each one of them as they embark now on day one of their orchestrated fear campaign on the emissions trading system: a fear campaign is what it is and those opposite know it.

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