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

I will take that interjection. Senator Abetz said, ‘Not your scheme.’ I do not think Senator Joyce has made that clear. He just says, ‘No, no, no, no, no, full stop’ to an emissions trading scheme. Did no-one in your party room or in your government actually talk to the National Party when you made that election promise? Is that what happened?

Can I suggest that some of the questions—and I do not want to labour this too much—from the chamber about things like the Climate Change Action Fund and the household compensation package demonstrate just how not seriously some senators in this debate have taken their responsibility as parliamentarians. You have come into this debate and asked the government questions about policy that has been on the books for over eight months. It was published and announced by the Prime Minister. Yet you still know so little about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme that you are asking whether we have a household compensation package, which has been publicised, and whether we have a Climate Change Action Fund, which has been on the books and talked about and discussed not only in the white paper but in many speeches. It is known to many industry groups. That really demonstrates that you voted against the CPRS without considering the detail at all. That really demonstrates that the coalition’s position on the CPRS is driven by very blind ideology, not by analysis of the policy. I hope that changes. I hope that those in the coalition who care about action on climate change—