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

I have to respond to the senator’s political observations about the Australian people losing out. I respectfully suggest that the Australian people who wanted action on climate change were not well served when this bill was voted down. The senator is concerned about greenhouse gas emissions. He knows that without this legislation Australia’s contribution to climate change will continue to worsen and our emissions will continue to rise. It is a matter of note that the Greens voted with Senator Fielding against this legislation—against the first time, whatever your view about the merits of the scheme, we would have had a scheme which put a limit on and then reduced Australia’s contribution to climate change. Without this bill our contribution to climate change will continue to worsen.

On the next point, I will give the senator the benefit of the doubt—maybe he did not understand me the first time. He suggested again that this bill gives people an incentive to knock trees down—it does not.