Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is very interesting, but ‘fair share’ can mean anything. Is it a fair share of $100 billion? Is it $1 billion or $10 billion? You will be going to Copenhagen, and I am asking you what offer you are going to put on the table. People are getting very concerned about this. They think they are being taken for a ride on the emissions trading scheme, and that sends them into overdrive. But when they realise that they have to pay someone for else’s climate change they just get absolutely furious, and I do not blame them. If they are going to pick up the tab they should know what they are going to pay. It is their money. It is not your money. It is the public’s money. It is the working families’ money. It is the battlers’ money. It is the businessmen’s money. It is not your money. You should tell the Senate how much money it is going to cost. You can have a guesstimate. Are you telling me that you are going over there with a completely blank page, that you do not know what it is going to cost, that you have not worked out what it is going to cost, that you have no idea what you are going to put on the table or that you do not care what it costs?

This is a serious parliament, and if you want to be taken seriously you have to tell the people. You have to take them into your confidence. If you think this is such a great idea you have to get out there and sell it. People are ringing us up and emailing us, and they want to know what the cost is. What can I tell them: ‘It’s going to be your fair share’? What is our fair share? No-one knows what our fair share is. How are you going to calculate our fair share? The people of Australia deserve to know this. They deserve to be able to open their computers tomorrow or the next day and access the information that is provided by the Senate and you as a senator in the executive. I do not think you are being particularly forthcoming about this. You have dodged it for the last three months. I have asked you continually, and you tell me it is a ‘fair share’. Forget about Ron Boswell; that does not really matter in the scheme of things. People out there want to know what it is going to cost, so please tell them.