Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition say they want to oppose this and then they complain that they do not have enough detail. You have already made up your minds about your position. You are not prepared to engage in the public debate. You are not prepared to seriously engage in a valid way. We think pricing carbon is an essential economic reform, that it is the right thing to do. We have announced the way we intend to progress these matters and we will have a proper public debate and engagement about finalising the detail within the framework we have established.

One of the things we learnt in the last term is that you cannot trust the Liberal and National parties to engage with you, because, after negotiating for months and months getting agreement on the way forward, they suddenly did a volte-face and abandoned their commitment.