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

It would help if the member for Melbourne actually listened to the question time debate and was able to recast his question, if necessary, because I have already given the answer. We are taking strong and effective action on climate change. By 2020 we will have delivered a 12 per cent emissions reduction on 2005 levels, and on a per capita basis we will have delivered a 30 per cent reduction in emissions on 2005 levels. This is amongst the best performance of any country in the world. What we want to do is to achieve the right environmental outcomes without damaging the best economic outcomes. That is what we want to do. We do not believe that you help the environment by torpedoing the economy. That is what members opposite would do when they bring back the carbon tax.

When it comes to climate change, members opposite are basically being dictated to by the Greens. That is the problem. I say to members opposite: stand up for yourselves, stand up for the jobs of the workers who have historically supported you, and say to the Greens, 'We won't have any more of this carbon tax nonsense. We won't have any more of these economic hits. We will tackle climate change in ways which are good for the environment and good for the economy too.' That is what this government was elected to do—to tackle climate change in a way which does not damage the economy—and that is exactly what we are delivering.

See this speech in context