Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The point I am making is that there is a serious price to pay for inaction on climate change—not just a price for the nation but specifically a price for the budget. If we see a collapse in tourism in the future in Far North Queensland because of the Barrier Reef, if we see Australian agriculture shrinking dramatically as a result of climate change and if we see the costs of dealing with amelioration and remediation on Australia’s coastline rising because of climate change, all of those things will inevitably impact on the budget in the medium to longer term. There will be the need for adjustment packages. There will be higher unemployment. There will be the need for specific compensation to assist people who are affected. So I would urge the House, and in particular the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Groom and those people in the Liberal Party who still have at least one foot on planet earth, to think very carefully about the implications of being held hostage by the urban and rural militias in the Senate that Senator Minchin is incubating because the implications of that for Australia, for the budget and for the people in rural and regional Australia in the longer term will be very serious.

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