Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

If the key charge is that which the Leader of the Opposition has put, I say it is a struggling opposition. We, as a government, have been dealing with the issue of climate change since we first got into government. I have reminded those opposite time and time again that we established the Australian Greenhouse Office in 1998, within two years of coming into office. What is more, it was the first of its kind within the world. So do not say that we have come to this issue lately. We have been addressing this issue in a good, sensible approach which has the recognition of, indeed, the IPCC itself. The IPCC itself has commended the Howard government’s approach. In relation to symbolic matters, I simply say the Labor Party would still sign on to Kyoto, knowing full well it would make no difference to the real challenges that we face. (Time expired)