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

There is some evidence—and it comes from a surprising quarter—of there being some light at the end of the tunnel and that is from Mr Abbott. This morning Mr Abbott was asked the question, ‘Do you think Turnbull now has more authority in the party room on difficult issues such as the CPRS now that Costello has gone?’ and Mr Abbott said:

All of those issues can now be discussed purely on their merits without any injection of personalities that might otherwise have occurred.

Tony Abbott has said it how it is. The internals of the Liberal Party have been driving the opposition’s position on climate change, so with Mr Costello out of the picture the question now is: does Mr Turnbull have the nerve to do what he knows is right, to stand up to those like Senator Cash, sceptics on that side, and support action on climate change? Those over there who know climate change is a real issue should turn up and say, ‘Hey, Malcolm, Peter’s gone; it’s your chance now to do the right thing.’