David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Birmingham, I always welcome your advice. Our policy is that carbon emissions will be cut by five per cent on 2000 levels by 2020, a total of 160 million tonnes of carbon. Senator Joyce, you will note that a weight is ascribed to carbon emission abatement. The fascinating thing about this debate is that your policy is exactly the same. You too seek to reduce carbon emissions by that much by 2020; you too seek to abate some 160 million tonnes of carbon. I am always fascinated to see the threads of climate change scepticism weave their way through your speeches because you are trying to hide your fundamental dishonesty in this debate. On paper, you too are committed to combating climate change. You too are committed to reaching a realistic target by 2020. But in reality you are not. For you, this entire debate is about appealing to the sceptics and the science deniers and hiding from public view your own policy. I hope that you fail in that endeavour. To the extent that any of the previous speeches offered any questions—and they barely did—I think that I have adequately responded.