George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

After the hot air that we have heard on this it is time for some clarity, time for some common sense and time for some understanding of exactly what this debate is. There has been a lot of confusion that was born in the creation of the carbon tax, because the Labor Party played the hokey-pokey game on this. Before the 2010 election the carbon tax was out, then after the 2010 election the carbon tax was in, and then before the 7 September election the carbon tax was out again, but now they are here telling us it is in. So you can understand why there has been a lot of confusion about this debate.

In essence, what we are debating it is a very simple premise, and that is that this carbon tax is going to help save the planet by raising costs. It will not surprise you to know that I dispute that premise on many levels, but I think it is vitally important that we realise from the start that it is confusing two very different debates. The first involves science and the second involves economics. First, there is the debate on science, which I believe has created an extraordinarily unscientific reaction around the globe. Science is always about ongoing inquiry and understanding, whereas the global warming debate has been characterised as one between good and evil—and we have heard that here today from the members opposite. That fits in perfectly with their hokey-pokey, kindergarten approach to politics, but for the grown-ups in the room it is certainly not objective. And from where I stand the greatest crime in this debate has been the demonisation of anyone who has the temerity to question any aspect of the theory of man-made climate change.

Just as those who subscribe to the anthropogenic climate change theories cannot be 100 per cent sure of their belief, I also cannot state categorically that I know there is no link between emissions and the climate. I do have doubts, and those doubts stem from the well-publicised antics of some of the climate scientists out there that were exposed in 'climategate', where they expressed private concerns over the negligible increase in global temperatures—in fact, there has been no increase statistically in global temperatures over the last 15 or 16 years—but then set about altering their statistics to try and prove the opposite.

The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, which is not influenced by the need to secure government funds, has published a report called Climate change reconsidered. That report showed that the science is nowhere near to being settled. They were reputable scientists—

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