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

I will take that interjection too. Senator Abetz said it was put on the agenda by the Howard government. It certainly was on the agenda for a long time, Senator Abetz. In fact, earlier this year was the 10th anniversary of the first report to the Howard government on the establishment of a trading scheme. I do not know what everyone else was doing 10 years ago—I certainly was not here—but you were already talking about it then. And the opposition’s position is, ‘Let’s just keep talking.’ I want to remind the opposition of a couple of things. It seems quite remarkable that Australian politics has come full circle. We seem to have a position from some members of the opposition which is at odds with former Prime Minister Howard. I remind those opposite that, in February 2007, Mr Howard said, ‘There can be no argument that greenhouse gases are having an adverse impact on the Earth’s environment.’ So I am wondering where Senator Bernardi and Senator Minchin are—oh, Senator Bernardi is in the chair, and it is bit unfair to verbal him when he is in the chair.