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

Senator Bernardi is well known as a man who denies the existence of climate change; he should think about what has happened in his home state of South Australia in recent years in terms of inflows into the Murray-Darling and the availability of water.

The reality is that those on the other side do not believe climate change is real. They run the Liberal Party these days. They have put forward a policy which is nothing more than a climate con job to get them through to the election, which is what you would expect from a party that is run by people who do not believe climate change is real. But what is really bizarre is that you have Mr Abbott beating his chest about ‘bringing it on’ at the same time as his senators are playing procedural games so as not to have the debate here, and now want the 15th inquiry, as I said, into climate change since the Rudd government came to power.

The government does not support this referral. It is just another delaying tactic from the opposition—people who, no matter what evidence is presented to them, currently wish not to act.