Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Next week, as the shadow minister assisting for climate change and the shadow minister for international development in the Pacific, I'll be representing the alternate government, the Labor opposition, at the Glasgow climate change conference. Decisions made there will have a profound impact upon Australia and upon my region especially. Carbon intensive regions such as mine, the Hunter, must be at the forefront of considerations. That's why it's important that my region be represented there.

Rather than considering the profound impact on the Hunter, unfortunately we've been seeing the circus from those opposite, the government. We've seen so-called modern Liberals surrender on the demand for an increased medium-term target, despite that being the key objective of the Glasgow COP. It is equally disgraceful that we've seen certain National Party members—in particular, their ministers—junking their long-term policy positions for 30 pieces of silver. They are junking their policy positions for a pay bump to return to cabinet. Never have I seen such venal manoeuvring as that I've seen over the last 24 hours from certain National Party ministers.

The truth is that they don't care about jobs in regions like mine. They don't care about the economic future of our country. They don't care about the opportunities in taking action on climate change. All they care about is their own jobs. All they care about is getting a pay rise. All they care about is their own naked self-interest.

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