Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This question is addressed to the Prime Minister. I ask the Prime Minister: given that the government’s refusal to negotiate or adjust its flawed emissions trading scheme has led to its defeat in the parliament today, will the Prime Minister now instruct its climate change minister to stop holding the nation’s renewable energy sector to ransom and accept the coalition’s position—to immediately separate the renewable energy legislation from the emissions trading legislation so the renewable energy legislation can be passed into law immediately?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question, and I go back, in part, to an answer I delivered to his first question, which is that if those opposite were serious in a negotiation with the government on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme then they would have had a policy from which to negotiate. And here we are, at this point of the process, where the government’s legislation and its plan have been before the nation for such a long period of time, and those opposite have not had a united policy position and, therefore, are in no position to negotiate with the government on any matter of substance.