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

I do not know where Senator Brown has been hiding in recent times, but she would be aware, for example, that at APEC we raised the issue of climate change as a very important issue for world leaders. Interestingly enough, it was the Australian government under the leadership of Prime Minister Howard, the foreign minister, Alexander Downer, and the environment minister, Malcolm Turnbull, that actually put it on the agenda. When the alternate Prime Minister had the opportunity to engage with the United States President on this issue for a full 45 minutes, what did Mr Rudd do? He did not mention the issue of climate change. Why? For cheap domestic purposes he seeks to raise climate change, but he squibs it when he can actually do something about it like engaging positively with the President of the United States. He is unable to deal with the issue. For the first time ever, because of Australia’s handling of this issue, we were able to get the countries of Russia, China and the United States to sit down together and talk about this issue in a very constructive way.