Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. In life, timing is everything. I understand the member for Parramatta holds her seat by 300 votes. Is she sounding just a little panicky today? I think she is feeling a little panicky today, and I reckon she has every reason to.

Let's get back to the matter at hand. This MPI gives me the opportunity to talk about my beloved Blues, the Carlton Football Club, who ended up on the bottom of the ladder. Do you know why? Because they turned up at the ground just about every week with nothing. I love them to bits, but they turned up with nothing—just like the Labor Party, who are turning up with nothing. Question time—nothing. They have got nothing to bring to the ground. They turn up with these MPIs and they use them as an excuse for a character assassination. They have got nothing. They are bringing nothing to the debate. They have been exposed for two years, and they have the spotlight well and truly on them now, and the heat is on. So I welcome the contribution of the previous speaker, and I would say she had better spent her time and energy focusing on her seat, just like I am.

Our emissions per person—this is a really important point to make here—now are at the lowest level in 25 years in this great country in which we live. Since 1990, Australia's population has grown by 39 per cent, yet emissions per capita have fallen by 29 per cent. The government's post-2020 target, announced recently, will see emissions per person fall by at least 50 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. How old will I be then? Too old! That is the largest reduction in the developed world.

Around the world they are looking on, in the midst of all the mocking from the other side, and they are actually saying: 'You know what? These Aussies cop a bit from their political opponents, but they actually get some of these things right.' The World Bank are reporting, 'Hey, we ought to take a look at what's going on down there in Aussie land because they're getting it right,' just like the rest of the world right now are wishing they had not mocked the border protection measures keeping that under control. We are now the pin-up people of the world when it comes to that.

So you can rush in and be cynical, but at the end of the day, as the Prime Minister said in question time, we are about getting results. It is not about ideology; it is about getting the results. If you want to reduce emissions, you get it the best way you can, the cheapest way you can. And that is what we are doing. What did you guys do? You brought in the big carbon tax. What did it do? It was a massive, $15.4 billion hit on the economy, and it worked out at a lazy $1,300 per tonne of abatement. What did we do? We brought in the Emissions Reduction Fund, a $2.55 million fund, and we got about our business. We have reduced emissions—have a guess how much. It is 93 times less than 1,300 bucks per tonne of abatement: only $13.95. We could chuck in a set of steak knives for that.

Really, you guys have got no idea. You go out after everything, like the member for Sydney today in question time. She always has a better plan for everything and wants to throw $18 billion at foreign aid because she wants to look like some superwoman in the global economy, but she has not put it on the hit list yet as a promise. She just wants to make political points on it.

We are getting about the job. Australia are playing our part in reducing global emissions. Let us not get ahead of ourselves. It is not our job to save the world. We are 23 million people. We are doing our bit. We are reducing global emissions as per the requirement that the people of Australia would have us do, but they want us to do it in a way that is affordable. They do not want the Leader of the Opposition to become the Prime Minister and introduce this great new turbocharged carbon tax that will just pillage away at the pockets of everyday Australians, just like the opposition did with every other tax they had. That is not what the people of Australia want. They want Australian leaders, the government of Australia, to do its bit, to lead our country to reduce emissions, but not at any cost. You will have it at any cost just because you are ideological. You want to make a political point. Well, knock yourselves out. But I suggest that, the next time you turn up in this place, whether it is at question time or it is an MPI, you pack your sports bag and you at least bring something to the ground.

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