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

I can understand, Senator Abetz, why you might be sensitive to me talking about your inconsistencies. I can recall you going to an election saying that you were going to act on climate change; you would put a price on carbon through an emissions trading scheme. I can recall Mr Abbott once saying that he supported an emissions trading scheme. Now he does not support an emissions trading scheme. Then he said that climate change was absolute crap. Even in these last two weeks we heard him saying that the science is not settled and then, 24 hours later, saying the science is settled. Senator, if you want to lecture about inconsistency you certainly have the credentials on your side to give that lecture. We have been very clear about the need to price carbon. I do not think anybody in this parliament who looked at what we did last term would suggest that we had never been clear about that. (Time expired)