Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to reports from the Australian Food and Grocery Council that the government’s carbon tax will undoubtedly result in significantly higher food and grocery prices for Australian mums and dads and pensioners. Given this impact on families and given the worsening turmoil in international financial markets, will the Treasurer reconsider his rushed timetable for the introduction of an emissions trading scheme?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. That was just a completely dishonest question. We have put out a green paper which canvasses all of the issues for a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. We are proud of the fact that in that green paper we put forward a compensation scheme for both households and businesses, particularly those that are strongly affected. For the member not to acknowledge that at all in his question just shows how desperate he is now that there has been a change of leadership in the Liberal Party, and they now do not have any responsible approach to climate change either. We are going to approach this issue in a measured way and in a responsible way, and we are going to do it in a timely way. For 12 long years we had inaction from all of those on that side of the House. The member for Higgins could not even bother to mention the words ‘climate change’ in any of his budget speeches. What we are getting now is simply more irresponsibility from the new Leader of the Opposition. Desperate to cobble together the numbers, he is now going to walk away from climate change and he is now going to walk away from emissions trading. They are utterly irresponsible and they should be condemned.