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

I thank the honourable member for his question. The government’s overall approach to the deep question of climate change is—and I say again what the core principle of the government’s policy attitude is—that the economic costs of inaction on climate change are far greater than the economic costs of action. I also note for the record that that was the position of the Leader of the Liberal Party as recently as last year. What we have seen through the pirouettes in policy which have occurred over the course of the last weekend by the Liberal Party and its leader is again flip, flop, flap—on climate change policy as well. This goes directly to the honourable member’s question about the future of industries in this country and getting the balance right for jobs, including in the aluminium industry, and the structure of the scheme which we have put forward, as I described before. But what the people of this country expect is consistency of policy. What we have had from those opposite is flip, flop, flap, not just on the question—

See this speech in context