Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I am aware of Mr Kloppers’ comments in relation to a carbon price. I am aware that there have been a range of commentators speaking about what is occurring in the United States. Obviously the consideration by the US congress of this issue has been a lengthy process and I would not want to make any prediction about that.

Obviously, Senator, it is no surprise to anybody in this place that this is a government that has made clear it believes that the science of climate change is real. We accept the science. We accept that carbon pollution is contributing to climate change and we believe that we need to deal with Australia’s carbon pollution. The Prime Minister said that before the election. She made her view very clear that we needed to do a range of things in renewable energy, and obviously also energy efficiency. But in order to reduce Australia’s pollution to the levels that are required, we need to look at a carbon price. That is not a new position for this side of politics; this is a position we have held consistently. I do understand that is not a position that the good senator agrees with. I think that he and I have had that discussion, if one can call it that, in this chamber some might say ad nauseam—certainly for a long time over and over again. I do not think that anything I say to him about the science and the overwhelming consensus around the need to act on climate change is going to change his mind. But that is the position of this government and we have been very clear about that and about the process we will now engage in.