Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am really surprised at Senator Xenophon raising the issue of relevance in this debate. The issues that Senator Xenophon has raised in the past would lead me to believe that Senator Xenophon believes in the magic pudding in relation to carbon pollution reduction in this country. This is not about a magic pudding. This is about doing what is right for this country. This is about doing what is right for the nation—something that the opposition are not prepared to do and something that the opposition are determined to walk away from. They are walking away from it because they want to pursue the fear and smear campaign that the opposition are renowned for in this country.

This amendment will not deliver the ongoing suite of changes that is required to ensure that we deal comprehensively with a reduction in carbon pollution in this country. Carbon sinks are one aspect of a whole suite of reductions in CO2 emissions that we are seeking to achieve.

I have been overseas recently. I was lucky enough to go overseas and see what is happening in the rest of the world. Talking to the Commonwealth countries around the world, who are concerned about their future and about ensuring that they can reduce their carbon footprint, I was quite interested to see that David Cameron, the Leader of the Opposition in the UK, takes a much more progressive position.