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

I think the date is wrong. I think it was 6 February that I announced the very clear, high-level principles the government would take to its approach to ETS design. An interesting thing for Senator Chapman to note is that it is the same position that you had when you were in government—when Prime Minister Howard finally responded to community concern on climate change and said, ‘Yes, we will have an emissions-trading scheme’—because it was the right thing to do. That was when Minister Turnbull, as he then was, said that petrol and transport should be included. That was the position that you adopted in government. Now that you are in opposition, you do not want to take the hard decisions. You do not want to present a responsible economic alternative. You want to play short-term political games with an issue that is critical to Australia’s future. I have outlined, time and time again, the process the government is going through in its decision making. (Time expired)