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

I have some recollection of the Lateline interview amongst many interviews that Minister Combet has done, and done very well, in his capacity as Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. In relation to China, I would remind the senator, if we look at this on a per capita basis, that China's level of carbon pollution is around six tonnes per person; Australia's is around 27 tonnes per person. We are the highest per capita emitters of any advanced economy in the world. If you truly believe that in 10 years time or 20 years time the world will continue to shift towards clean energy and clean-energy technology, it is in the interests of Australians and Australian jobs to start to transition to cleaner energy and to build our capacity in clean-energy technology. The difference between those opposite and us is that we do care about building those jobs and making those changes that will benefit Australia over the long term.