Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

They are looking to us to act so that they can also act. It is only fair. We know it is only fair. It is the right thing to do for Australia. It is the right thing to do for our economy, our jobs and our environ­ment. Taking this action is not easy, but we will not shirk this responsibility like those opposite. It is the right thing to do. It is not about winning votes. It is not about lever­aging off scare campaigns and leveraging off discredited sceptics like Lord Monckton. We have a responsibility to be guided by good science and policies that make good econ­omic sense and good environmental sense. I have heard the critique of senators opposite time and time again. They say that Australia does not count and that it is too small to matter, but that is simply not true. Other nations are acting and they expect Australia to act. This is a diabolical global problem and we all have to play our part in taking on this issue.

It is in our interests—our environmental and our economic interests—to act. It is predicted that we are to be impacted harshly by climate change. Western Australia has suffered a dramatic decrease in rainfall since the early 1970s. I, like many other Western Australians, feel this very acutely. We have had dramatic rainfall decreases and rainfall is predicted to continue to decrease under the impacts of climate change. So we need the world to act to cut emissions and we cannot expect the rest of the world to act if we do not. It is in our economic interest.

We need to do our best as a nation to adapt to the future. Staying locked into the old ways will put us behind other nations who are acting. Other nations are adapting their economies in response to a climate restrained future. Thank goodness they are, because we desperately need the rest of the world to act. Our climate future here in Australia depends on it. And there are many Liberals that agree. The shadow Treasurer said, on that issue just last year:

inevitably we'll have a price on carbon … we'll have to.

As the former Leader of the Opposition said:

… politics is about conviction and a commitment to carry out those convictions. The Liberal Party is currently led by people whose conviction on climate change is that it is 'crap' and you don't need to do anything about it.

This continuing inconsistency from the opposition demonstrates that they are clearly unfit to be the alternative government. It is also deeply impacting on investment and investment certainty in this nation. That is something that we will require through these reforms. (Time expired)