Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Brown for the question and for the interest that he shows on the issue of climate change. It is an interest that unfortunately those opposite whilst in government seemed not to have shown for far too long. We will look back on the history of the Howard government as a time when we as a nation could have dealt with the issue of climate change but failed to do so.

In relation to the specific issues raised by the honourable senator, firstly there was the issue of what degree of global warming is unacceptable. I will indicate our position on this very clearly. Unlike those opposite, we do not quibble with the science in this area. We recognise that scientists around the world have been warning governments of various political persuasions about the need to put in place policies and measures to tackle climate change. That is why we went to the election with a policy to tackle climate change. But we will do so, Senator Brown, methodically and responsibly. We went to the election with a commitment to put in place an emissions trading scheme, and I have already outlined on another occasion the parameters that we propose for the design of that scheme.

On the issue of medium-term targets, which is really at the heart of the first part of Senator Brown’s question, as I indicated in Bali and have subsequently indicated on a number of occasions, this government will not set a medium-term target until we have fully and carefully considered—