Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—The government does not support this motion, because what it represents is outsourcing to the Productivity Commission the development of a range of completely different policies. The government was elected to implement a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme. I would note that the members of the opposition were also elected to implement a cap-and-trade emissions scheme. It has taken us over a decade of debate and analysis to get to this point. We have already done the work to know that this is the best way for Australia to tackle climate change. To do what Senator Xenophon is proposing would be to go right back to the drawing board and junk all the work that has already been done and the commitments we were elected to implement. On those bases, the government cannot support the motion.