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

We were just told about Australians being concerned about reducing emissions. Guess what? Just recently we as a government circulated to every household in Australia what they could do about this issue. And who were the ones who condemned us? The Australian Labor Party—the people who today are now feigning concern about this issue! The Labor Party cannot have it both ways. Either it is a matter of national significance for every single citizen in Australia and therefore they should be assisted in engaging on this important issue, or it is not. When we do it, we are condemned. We raise it at APEC—Mr Rudd does not raise it at APEC—but of course they are the alleged champions. Mr President, it is another classic case of Labor saying, ‘Do as we say, not as we do’; whereas we are actually taking the hard actions engaging with people to ensure that we get good results.