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

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has made clear that the government has not made any decisions about an advertising campaign in this area. I would make the point to Senator Birmingham that when the coalition was in government there was a substantial amount of money spent on government advertising; from recollection, some $121 million was spent on advertising Work Choices. This government has reduced the advertising funding by a significant amount in a range of budget decisions over the last few years.

I make the point that there is obviously a discussion that can occur about the extent to which we need to get the facts out in this debate as opposed to some of the fear mongering that we have seen in recent times. I am interested, for example, in some of the comments written on signs outside parliament today. One said, ‘Carbon dioxide is not pollution’; another said, ‘I love CO2.’