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

Let’s just go through that sentence again because the member was yelling instead of listening. She pretends an interest in this question, but she is really just on the fear campaign. Let’s just go through that very slowly for her again. China surpassed the US as the country with the greatest investment in clean energy. Let’s just have a think about what that means for the future of the global economy and the economy of our region. We have the giant economy of China investing at that rate in clean energy, more than the United States. What should that imply to the member for Indi if she really stopped and thought about it? It should imply that China is making those investments for a purpose. It is making those investments because it too wants to tackle climate change. It should imply to the member for Indi that there will be huge economic possibilities for our nation as China invests. If we research and develop and are at the forefront, the cutting edge of this technology, imagine the wealth that could be generated. If we are there as a clean energy nation ourselves, able to export technologies and knowledge to a giant like China, imagine the wealth.

Of course, the member for Indi sits there and shakes her head because she is not interested in the facts and she is not interested in imagining the possibilities of the future. Let me say to the member for Indi: our future as a nation will be made by being a cleaner energy economy. We cannot afford to be left behind as giants like China and the US and the countries of Europe change and move. We cannot afford to be left behind. Prime Minister Howard understood this; Treasurer Peter Costello understood this.

The member who asked the question campaigned in the 2007 election on the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. She was re-elected in this parliament in 2007 on the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. I say to the members of the Liberal Party who are truly ashamed of this fear campaign, who are truly ashamed of how low the Liberal Party has fallen under this Leader of the Opposition: it is time for them to assert themselves and say unambiguously that they believe in the climate change science—

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