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

It sounds like the member for Curtin wants to make a comeback as the shadow Treasurer! As the Prime Minister and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency have indicated, we think this is a very good report from Professor Garnaut. It is a very important report that means that there can be a thorough community debate about dealing with dangerous climate change and its impact not just on our environment but on our economy. Of course, it is a serious piece of work. It is a serious piece of work which feeds into the work that the government is doing with the multi-party committee, the business community and the wider community. We will take that on board as we go through developing an emissions trading scheme based on the principles that have already been announced by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

What we have seen here today is the pretence that somehow the government have already taken those decisions. We have not. The opposition want to go out there and run a scare campaign. Why are they running a scare campaign? It is because they are so acutely embarrassed about their lack of policy. They have no economic policy. They have been coming into this House and calling for an election despite the fact that their election policy from last year had a $10 billion hole in it.

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