Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Oxley for this very important question because putting a price on carbon is the right thing to do for Australia. It is not an easy thing to do. There are no soft options and of course there are no cost-free options, but it is the right thing to do not just for the future of our country but also for the future of our economy.

There are diverse views in the community, and we welcome a full debate about global warming and what must be done about it. We welcome a frank debate, but that debate must be based on facts, not on fear. The behaviour that we have seen from the opposition, and particularly the opposition leader, today is that he is moving over to the fringe. He is moving over to the fear side of the argument and he does not want to confront the facts.

Yesterday he took offence in this House at being called a climate change denier. But out there today he was addressing a climate sceptics rally. Yesterday he was claiming he was somehow a believer in action on global warming but today he is out there addressing a rally of climate change sceptics.

I would like to quote from the website used by the group that was out the front of parliament today. Fair enough: they should be out expressing their opinions. I do not contest that for a moment. This is a debate about ideas. It should be a debate about ideas. It should be a debate about fact. But this is what the website that is used by those who were outside parliament today says—and everybody should listen very carefully:

CO2 is not pollution and does not need to be reduced in the first place …

It then goes on to say:

Any warming from CO2 is likely to be harmless.

He was out there today addressing a rally of climate change sceptics. Yesterday he took offence about being called a climate change denier. How can he have any credibility in here when he says he believes in dealing with global warming and goes out and addresses a rally of people who do not believe in dealing with global warming? How can he have any crediblity at all? He comes into this House and says he is a believer in markets and then he puts forward some Russian-style scheme to deal with changes in the environment.

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