David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those features, such as permits, are all about protecting the jobs of today while transitioning the Australian economy over the long term towards a 2050 ambition of us becoming a post-carbon economy. This is a challenge Australia must face—but, it is understood by us on this side, it is also a challenge that the world must face. So we are crafting public policy here to account for two important issues: the long time frames we are talking about here—that is, that the mission must be accomplished by around 2050—and developing a scheme that encompasses and understands the fact that we are working in an international, multilateral environment.

That is why the scheme recognises the fact that we have made important progress with our international trading partners. We now have the 27 countries of the European Union in an emissions trading system. We have 27 states of the United States. Canada and New Zealand are considering moving into an emissions trading system. And Obama’s United States are considering that, too. As with all the other major public policy issues that are confronting us at this time, whether it be the global financial challenge— (Time expired)