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

That is why CCS technologies are so critical. Our government’s ambition is to become the world leader in this technology and its application. We will have more to say about this in the days ahead. I suggest to those opposite that, rather than carping and being critical about it, they should get on with the process of supporting the government’s actions.

The other part of the honourable member’s question goes to the impact of climate change on water. Here again we are confronted with a dilemma in terms of the posture of those opposite. We know that the Murray-Darling is suffering from enormous stress. That stress, contrary to what the previous Leader of the Opposition said, is partly the product of climate change. It is also the product of historical overallocation of water entitlements. Our challenge is: what are we going to do about it? Therefore, what we have done since coming into government—and I say ‘done’ since coming into government; we have not dreamt about it like those opposite did for so long—is begin to buy back water entitlements.

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