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

Through you, Mr President, I politely suggest to those opposite that perhaps the recent intervention by former Prime Minister Howard would be something they should remember. Of course, Prime Minister Howard was a hero of many of those opposite, notably amongst them being Senator Bernardi. In fact, Senator Bernardi has said John Howard has been an extraordinary leader for this country, or perhaps that was Senator Minchin—I have difficulty sometimes discerning which words come from which of them. They seem to avoid being reminded not only of Mr Howard’s promise but also of Mr Howard’s recent public statement in relation to the emissions trading scheme in which he said, ‘What Mr Rudd is proposing is not all that different from what I took to the last election.’ So you have it from the Liberal Party hero, the greatest Prime Minister according to many of those opposite, who himself endorsed the concept of an emissions trading scheme; yet those opposite seem unable to deliver on that. (Time expired)