Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We just see the scare campaign continuing, and it is disappointing that Senator Bernardi, with many of his colleagues, continues on this program just denying the settled science. I do not pretend to be a scientist, but I have been briefed, I have been lobbied by some of the smartest people I have ever met, who have taken us through study after study, the science, and have certainly convinced me. I have also been in international forums where, again, scientists—the best minds across the world—have said: 'We need to act on climate change. We need to act soon, and the sooner we act the cheaper it will be for everybody.'

I clearly believe in climate change. I have been overwhelmingly convinced. Unfortun­ately, the coalition is so out of step with the rest of the world. You only have to look in Britain, where the conservative government there also believes in climate change and taking firm action. The conservative government in New Zealand also believes in climate change and taking firm action. If you look across the world—and I know the coalition does not want to hear this—we see governments taking firm, strong, short-, medium- and long-term action every day. Everybody, except for the coalition here in Australia, now understands that we need to take action to save our climate. Who do we need to do this for? Not for me, and not for most people here. We need to do it for our children. If we want to have a healthy, prosperous economy and country into the future, we need to take these actions now, and we need to get the results soon.

When I said that the coalition are the only ones across the world who do not believe in climate change, of course, they used to once. They went to the 2007 election with a policy that believed in climate change and, in fact, was going to do something about it. What were they going to do about it? They were going to put a price on carbon, the very thing that Senator Bernardi says is this harmless thing that we breathe out every day and we should not have to worry about it. Quite frankly, Senator Bernardi, I think you ought to get together with the old tobacco lobby and the old asbestos lobby. You could find some crackpots here and there who would come out and tell you anything to support your negative scare campaign. They are the people you want to keep mixing with, because, quite frankly, you obviously get on very well with those sorts of people. But the rest of us need to move on.

We know from all the modelling that has been done—and I am no economist but I know and I have been briefed by some of the best economists around—that the sooner we take action, and take action that is going to make a difference, the cheaper it will be for our economy. What is wrong with making the polluters pay for the cost of pollution? What is wrong with putting a price on the cost of pollution? Really, what we are arguing is that we want the market to drive innovation and drive solutions, and we think that the best way to do that is the market. I would have thought that those on the other side would have agreed that the market tools would be a good way to transform our economy to address climate change. I would have thought that is what you would be believing. But, no, you have got a policy of saying, 'Let people pollute for nothing, continue to increase unlimited pollution and we will just use taxpayers' money to clean up the mess.' That is your policy. Keep polluting; pollute as much as you like, the taxpayer will pick up the bill. We do not believe that. We believe that market mechanisms will drive innovation and will assist in transforming this economy so that it can actually address climate change and start reducing the pollution in this country. We think that is a smart way to go and we know that it is the cheapest way to go. We know it is the cheapest and most effective way to go, and that is why we are going to do it: because it is the right thing for this country. It is the right thing not necessarily for me but for my kids and your kids and our grandkids and the future generations. I am not going to be here in this parliament as someone who ignores the signs, ignores the science and abrogates my responsibility as a legislator to do the right thing by this country, the right thing by our economy and the right thing by our children. Those on that side will stand condemned in the future if they actually stop this happening. You may think that is very funny. I thought you actually cared about children. You are actually voting to abandon their futures and abandon a healthy, strong economy. Shame on you.