Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have a climate emergency, and for over six years now this Liberal government has been failing our nation on that climate emergency. Under this Liberal government's chaotic and blatantly self-interested rule, life has got harder for the vast majority of Australians, while this government has become expert in only one thing: blaming everybody but itself. This government particularly likes to blame Labor. The government's talking points for ministers leaked to the media this morning refer to Labor 44 times. They'll no doubt do that again in question time.

But one of this government's most catastrophic failings has been in dealing with the immediate and growing threat that our nation and world face as a consequence of our warming climate. While Australia is burning, this Liberal party is making excuses. While this government's failure to produce an energy policy over six years of internal bickering and chaos is forcing up power prices and emissions, the Liberal Party is making excuses.

This government has been unremittingly destructive of the genuine and productive policy debate that Australia needs to engage in on climate change. Instead, they play a destructive, dishonest and opportunistic kind of politics with climate change policy, and in this process they've been working against our national interest for their own political self-interest. Responding to climate change remains the most critical long-term environmental, economic— (Time expired)