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

I thank Senator Moore for the question and for her continued interest in the issue of climate change. Whilst the debate on the issue of climate change might be coming to a head in this parliament in this fortnight, it is worth remembering that this has been going on for many years both in Australia and overseas. It is in fact over a decade since the Australian government and the then Prime Minister, Mr Howard, received its first report on emissions trading, and it is over two years since Prime Minister Howard embraced emissions trading and committed the Liberal Party to introducing emissions trading. In fact, the Liberal Party made that decision after the release of the Task Group on Emissions Trading report, which was prepared by the former head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Peter Shergold. Dr Shergold recently explained the decision like this:

There were discussions with the PM. There were discussions with cabinet. There was a ceremony in which I handed over the report to the prime minister.

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The key message was go soon because the longer you delayed, the higher the cost you imposed upon yourself and the greater the investment uncertainty.

One wonders where Senator Minchin might have been when that ceremony was occurring. One wonders where Senator Minchin might have—