Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I have a supplementary question for the minister. Although Mr de Boer may have talked about Australia’s credibility, his comments that the minister cited in her answer had nothing to do with the outcomes from the Copenhagen conference or what relevance an Australian ETS would have to those outcomes. So why is it that the minister is demanding that Australia rush ETS legislation when in respect of the yet to be passed US emissions trading scheme the US Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change, Jonathan Pershing, has also said, with reference to the Copenhagen conference, that you can have a deal without having the legislation first?