Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was quite perplexing to listen to Senator Bushby’s contribution to this debate. It surprises me because my recollection is that he was a member of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee that inquired into the CPRS bill, as it was called at that stage. I was a member as well. I can certainly remember the contributions made by scientists, economists and a whole plethora of people with experience who came along. They made contributions making it clear that this is a serious issue. It is serious enough for people to come into this chamber and make contributions and have a debate on this matter rather than throw up scare campaigns and talk about sipping lattes and all this sort of nonsense. It gets really bad when you have the opposition coming into this chamber making those ridiculous, outrageous claims. There is no substance to their argument on this pressing issue.

They pretend to be the champions for workers. They come in here and say: ‘We’re concerned about what will happen with jobs. We’re concerned about what will happen with workforces.’ Where were they five years ago when they introduced Work Choices into this parliament? They were champing at the bit to bring in laws to diminish conditions and to restrict workers from accessing unfair dismissal rights. There were a whole range of severe cases that brought back IR extremes from the 19th century. That is how far they went with Work Choices. We fixed that and we will fix the climate.

We will introduce laws and we will get them through this chamber to make sure the climate is protected, unlike those on the other side. What is their view? What does their leader say? He says that climate change is crap. That is their position. Not one of them have refuted that position. They stand up and champion that. They champion the view of their so-called opposition leader that climate change is crap. That is why they come to this chamber and support the policy of a $30 billion deficit. That is what their policy will create. Their policy is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. They know it, and that is why they cannot come in here and defend it. They come in here with these scurrilous, ridiculous claims that they are going to do something for the climate. They are not, and the Australian public know that.

The differences between the policies of the government and the opposition are clear. We have a policy that will make sure polluters pay. Conversely, they have a policy that will make taxpayers pay for pollution. Those are the differences between the two of us.