John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I beg your pardon, Minister—you referred to the fact that agriculture was going to be in a terrible plight anyway as a result of climate change and that, if we did not fix it, the losses would be substantial. If it goes that way then of course you will be right. So I guess you belittled us because we felt that you were knocking agriculture—despite the 22 per cent cut, which is pretty significant in itself. But you neglected to mention the fact that, at this point in time, Australia is the only country in the world that is proposing a scheme which would have anything like this effect on agriculture, whether or not it is actually included in the scheme. So, in effect, are you not saying that Australian agriculture is going to be affected by climate change—in other words, less rainfall, less moisture—and that, on top of that, you are going to add 22 per cent in cuts that are man-made when no other country in the world is doing that?

See this speech in context