Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The question is not whether or not our climate is impacted by human activity—clearly there is a human impact on our climate. The question is: how is it best dealt with? The government believes that it should be dealt with with a great big new tax; the coalition believes that it should be dealt with by direct action measures—more trees, better soils, smarter technology. That will actually reduce our domestic emissions by five per cent by 2020. That is the big difference. Our Direct Action policy will actually reduce domestic emissions by five per cent; the government's will not. Under the government's policy, despite a carbon tax—a crippling carbon tax—forecast by the government's own modelling to reach $37 a tonne by 2020, Australia's domestic emissions do not decrease; they increase from 578 million tonnes to 621 million tonnes.

I welcome this opportunity which the Leader of the House, in his genius—in his tactical brilliance—has given me to point out just what the government's policy is doing. It is clobbering our economy and it is increasing emissions. What genius from members opposite! They only achieve their five per cent reduction by purchasing some 100 million tonnes from the foreign carbon traders. That is what they are doing. It is a $3½ billion gift to the foreign carbon traders—$3½ billion that the consumers of Australia will pay because of this government's policies. The choice is clear: you can have good environmental protection under the coalition or you can have a great big new tax and a worse environment under the government.

Opposition members interjecting—

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