David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That advice is coming from the proper quarters, Senator. It is not coming from your nonsensical approach to public policy. Senator Milne made the assertion—which I think I could characterise as an allegation—that Senator Wong and this government take the old fossil fuel economy very seriously. That is true. We do take the old fossil fuel economy, as Senator Milne characterised it, very seriously. That is the economy which has built this country, and that is the economy which we are charged with the responsibility of managing and transitioning.

Australia is a trade-exposed and commodities-based economy. That makes it a particularly emissions-intensive economy and that means that the transformation challenge is very acute for all of us. We have a challenge which, I would submit, is greater than that confronted by any European country and I daresay by the United States.

Our great challenge is to change the trajectory of emissions so that we can bring our emissions into line with international obligations and agreements, and so we can try and achieve those targets that were set out at Copenhagen. In taking on this challenge, and accepting that challenge as real, we do understand the need for long-term investment signals. Long-term investment signals would have been set out clearly and effectively by the CPRS that the Greens party—the author of this censure motion—struck down.

The proposition that we destroy the coal industry is simply indicative of a mindset which is fundamentalist in its approach. It assumes that its opposition is always motivated by corrupt or vested interests, is always evil and is not simply comprised of persons who reach different conclusions in good faith. The proposition that we destroy the coal industry is ridiculous. The idea that we unilaterally dismantle our economy, our prosperity, our way of life is ridiculous. Unilateral disarmament was a ridiculous notion in the Cold War and the unilateral dismantling of our economy today is just as absurd.

This censure motion should be treated for what it is—a stunt. It is a stunt that has attracted no interest from the media and very little interest from those opposite. It has only attracted our contempt that a party which worked so assiduously to sabotage action on climate change now seeks to censure us on matters pertaining to the environment.