Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am responding to the question by indicating the process that led to where we are now with the creation of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. In understanding that, it is important to understand the twists and turns of the opposition on this. We finally worked out, courtesy of the member for Wentworth and his description of the Leader of the Opposition as a ‘weathervane’, that the Leader of the Opposition’s version of dealing with climate change is that you go outside, you stick your finger up in the wind and you see which way the political winds are blowing and then you decide what you are going to do about climate change.

We do not agree that weathervane focus-group-driven politics is appropriate—the kind subscribed to by the Leader of the Opposition—so we are seizing the opportunity of this new parliament to bring together people of goodwill, who believe climate change is real, who believe that human activity is causing climate change and who believe in the need to price carbon in order to deal with climate change and in order to meet the carbon emissions reduction targets that are actually bipartisan politics in this parliament.

We will keep doing that, and I say to the member who asked the question: if he has a serious interest in tackling climate change he should converse with his leader about putting his finger back outside, testing the political winds and finding that the Australian people are actually looking to us to do something responsible in this place. You would have the opportunity to then participate in the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee.

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