Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hope that honourable senators will look at the contribution to this debate today of Senator Stephens and compare it to the contribution of Senator Carr. I suppose in some respects no-one should be surprised about Senator Carr’s comments today, but I think Senator Stephens has sensibly discussed some of the issues that we all need to talk about. It was a sensible contribution. I think Senator Stephens said that global warming is real and there is a compelling case for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Absolutely. But what contribution did we hear from Senator Carr? He made those hand movements—the wringing hands that we expect from Senator Carr when he is trying to look sensible and make a contribution to the public debate. The only contribution that Senator Carr made today was to talk about the corporations power and the threat of ‘not in my backyard’. Did Senator Carr make one sensible contribution to the debate today? No, he did not. Did Senator Stephens attempt to make some sensible contribution to this debate today? Yes, she did.

Surely, we in this country are mature enough, politically and otherwise, to have a sensible debate about this matter. But, Senator Carr, your contribution, I am afraid, was what I would expect from you—that is, it was about the fear, about the backyard and about the corporations power. Did you sensibly discuss this issue today? Did you take the opportunity to make a contribution about what was in the Switkowski report? Did you have a look at the options that are facing this country over the next 50 years, of which nuclear power may well be one? I am probably in the camp which, for a wide variety of reasons, thinks it is highly unlikely. But does that mean we do not discuss these matters? Does that mean that we do not look at what the options are? Do we not owe it to our kids and our grandkids to look at these options?

While I sometimes disagree with Matt Price, particularly on some of the comments he makes about me, over the weekend—