Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

There are many methods of doing so: an emissions trading scheme, regulation, the Emissions Reduction Fund, a carbon tax and many, many others. Many other techniques can achieve the same end. And so the judgement for policymakers is what is the best model—what is the best approach—in the circumstances of the time. We have chosen as a government, thanks to the hard work of the environment minister, to use an Emissions Reduction Fund. He has demonstrated that it is cutting emissions at a very low cost, and this so upsets the opposition that they are now forgetting that climate policy is about cutting emissions and thinking that the goal is an emissions trading scheme. Of course I have supported an emissions trading scheme in the past. So did my party. So did John Howard. It is a technique. But we have changed our policy. The critical question is: what is our goal? Our goal is cutting emissions. We are doing that. We are doing that in the manner that we believe is least cost, and so far the work of the Minister for the Environment is demonstrating that that judgement is correct.

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