Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Bernardi, you can continue to come in here and run this hardline ideological position that is out of step with the Australian community and the South Australian community if you wish—that it is entirely your decision—but the reality is that Australians understand the reality of climate change. Those of us from South Australia are actually in the grip of an extraordinarily bad drought. Senator Bernardi knows that. People understand that we have had—and I cannot recall the statistics—something like nine of the driest years on record in the last 10. We understand the reality of climate change, unlike the government, who continues to deny it. It is quite extraordinary. It really demonstrates who the ideologues are in this chamber.

Who are the ideologues in this chamber? Are the ideologues the people who talk about choice, while putting forward radical and extreme industrial relations laws which make life harder for working people, or those who recognise that balance in the workplace is a good idea and having a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work is an Australian value? Who is the ideologue in the chamber who says that the science is still out in relation to human activity actually affecting climate change? Who are the ideologues? We know: they are Senator Bernardi, Senator Minchin and various others on the government benches who are still, in the face of all this scientific agreement, standing there saying, ‘Well, we’re not sure this is true.’

It is an extraordinary thing, isn’t it? It is like King Canute, but the other way around. It is saying, ‘No, we don’t believe this is really happening,’ as the evidence of climate change continues to grow, and it flies in the face of the government asserting that they are prudent economic managers. This is one of the largest economic challenges, if not the largest economic challenge, Australia will face in the years to come. This is one of the most central economic, social and environmental challenges this government or any government will face.