Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make the point in response to the member who asked the question that there is no country in the world, according to the Productivity Commission, that has an economy-wide carbon tax or indeed an economy-wide emissions trading scheme. For instance, the European ETS covers just 45 per cent of total emissions at about $8 a tonne; California's ETS covers about 35 per cent of total emissions at about $12 a tonne; New Zealand's ETS covers 50 per cent of total emissions at about $4.60 per tonne; and the Chinese ETS, or the proposed pilot in Beijing, covers 40 per cent of total emissions. And I am advised that 99.9 per cent of permits have been provided to industry for free.

When it comes to carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes, the world is going against the Greens' view. The problem that the Greens have, apart from the fact that they are being echoed by the Leader of the Opposition, and the problem the Labor Party have is that, as far as they are concerned, Copenhagen never happened. That is the thing: they have not woken up to the fact that everything with respect to climate change changed at Copenhagen. What we are doing is proposing—

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