Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He has proclaimed he will roll back a policy that is still being developed—every minute of every day. As I said, does the man never sleep? No wonder the decision making is so appalling.

Yet we know that there are senators opposite who would support our approach. They believe in a price on carbon. We have a major economic reform and, I believe, the right approach to this issue. We need certainty for business, a case that has been well stated by our ministers today. In fact, a delay means business will not be able to make decisions. It drives up costs for businesses and costs for Australian consumers.

We know, this nation knows and this parliament should know that we need to shift to an economy that produces less pollution so that we can make goods that produce less pollution more attractive; in other words, goods that create less pollution should cost less than those that create a lot of pollution. It is a rational approach. The sooner we move on this journey, the cheaper that journey will be.

We also have climate scientists around the world telling us that carbon pollution is causing climate change and that the scientific case demonstrating this is in fact overwhelming. I am pleased to say that this government accepts the climate science. We know that the world is warming. 2010 was the equal warmest year on record, with 2001-10 being the warmest decade. In a summer where we have experienced such extreme weather events around the nation, we really need to ask ourselves, ‘Can we not participate with the globe in creating an insurance against this kind of effect on our population?’ No responsible government can ignore these findings, which is why we need to make a start now in reducing carbon pollution. We need to play our part in the world’s efforts to save our planet.

But these moves, as demonstrated today, are also about driving innovation, creating jobs and building a stronger economy. We know that the world must move and if we lag behind we lose economically and our environment loses. The same scare campaigns have been run every time a government has set out on a major economic reform, such as reducing tariffs. It is easy to put off reform, to ignore the negative impacts of a patchwork economy and to ignore the challenges of climate change. We have been talking about a price on carbon for a long time, as have the opposition. But we know that, just like reducing tariffs, it is about creating jobs and building a stronger economy. It is about driving investment in clean energy and creating the jobs of the future. It is about business certainty. (Time expired)