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

I will listen to Senator Williams, whom I try and listen to because he is a good bloke. He is said to be civil, and I will try and be civil, but I think it is really—perhaps inappropriate is too strong a word—regrettable that Senator Joyce continues to make assertions in this place which are incorrect. He knows that action is being taken in other nations. He conveniently forgets all of Europe, which has been under an emissions trading scheme for quite a number of years. He conveniently forgets New Zealand, which has a very big agricultural sector and which has already legislated its scheme. He conveniently ignores the fact that President Obama is trying to get one through his congress and was elected with a policy to reduce emissions and has adopted a cap-and-trade policy. He conveniently forgets that the Japanese government has pledged to introduce one. The premise of his question is factually incorrect.