Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Reid for his question. To meet the challenge of climate change we need to embark on a long-term transformation of our economy. We have got to break the link between economic growth and growth in our pollution. We have got to continue to improve living standards, improve employment, improve growth, improve productivity, but do it in an environmentally sustainable way. Economies that make that transformation in the 21st century are the economies that will have the competitive edge. Tackling climate change by pricing carbon is going to position our economy to be competitive in the long term. To set up this country and our economy for that historic transformation we have to overcome some old mindsets. We cannot afford to revert to the old discredited, protectionist, anti-market instincts of the past. We have to continue with the tradition of economic reform that has characterised the last 25 years of public policy making in this country, in particular, and we have to be honest about the challenge that is ahead of us. The Leader of the Opposition is failing on both of those fronts. He attempts to deceive, to misrepresent the facts and he has abandoned economic reform.

Consider some of the deceptions and misrepresentations of the facts that the Leader of the Opposition has engaged in. A week or so ago he claimed that the Climate Commission's new science report vindicated his subsidies for polluters policy. In fact, when you look at the report it explicitly states that policies like subsidies for polluters 'have the potential to lock in more severe climate change for the future'. It is an explicit, wilful, misrepresentation of the facts. He has also consistently misrepresented Professor Garnaut's work, including in question time yesterday and again in question time today. He has completely misrepresented, deliberately and wilfully, the proposition put forward for an independent committee to consider the circumstances of setting targets and caps and making recommendations to government and parliament about them. He has been travelling around the country visiting regions and workplaces, consistently misrepresenting—

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