Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He did say that. He said that on 7 November 2007 and the hypocrisy of Senator Ryan beggars belief. When he was trying to win the support of environmentalists in Victoria to become a senator, he said, 'We will introduce a low-cost best-practice emissions trading system'. I do not hear him saying that now that he is in here. He has his backside on the red leather and he is running a mile from his promises and running a mile from his posi­tion. I say it again: he said that the Liberals would introduce 'a comprehensive world best practice emissions trading system'. They have gone a long way from that.

So I do not really place much weight on the arguments from Senator Ryan. As I said, at least with Senator Boswell you know that he is a climate change denier, you know that he does not believe in the science and you know why he has taken the position he has taken. But from the hypocrisy of those who would go out in 2007, like Senator Ryan when he was trying to get the Victorian public to elect him to public office, and say all these things and then run away from those principled positions when they are in the Senate trying to claw their way up to the front bench of the Liberal Party, we know there is a problem. We know there is no credibility in terms of his position and we know that the scientific position is just ignored.

I turn quickly to what Senator Colbeck said. He said that capital is mobile and there is a sovereign risk because we are putting a price on carbon. I am on the Senate Select Committee on Scrutiny of New Taxes—for my ills, but I am there. We have a submi­ssion from the Investor Group on Climate Change. Who is on that group? AMP Capital Investors—and I would listen to them before I would listen to Senator Ryan—Australian Super, BT Investment Management—and I would listen to them before I would listen to Tony Abbott and the coalition—Cbus, Colonial First State Global Asset Manage­ment, Deutsche Bank Equity Research, Insti­tute of Financial Services, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Perpetual and UBS Invest­ment Bank. What do they say? They say that we have to deal with climate change because to not deal with climate change is a problem and that that creates the sovereign risk. The biggest sovereign risk is not dealing with this, and the longer we delay dealing with it the more expensive it will be to deal with. They go on to say, 'The Leader of the Opposition's position on direct action is not a policy that is reasonable or will deliver.' They say that investors represented by the IGCC consider the coalition's policy:

... to be ... costly and ... unviable for capping national emissions.

So not only is it the complete opposite of what Senator Ryan said when he was trying to win public office and what he is now denying; the people who actually advise where you should invest say it is costly and not viable in capping emissions. They say, 'It will be a direct cost to the taxpayer.' And we know that that cost will be $1,300 for every taxpayer. The polluters will be told, 'You just pollute; we'll just tax.' That is their line: 'You just pollute and we'll just tax.' It will cost every taxpayer $1,300 to fund a policy that the market says is unviable and the market says is costly. Instead of doing what we are doing, looking after the Australian public, these people are taxing them and pushing a policy that is unviable.

Finally, the hypocrisy from Senator Ryan knows no bounds. He was out there telling the Victorian community that he believed in climate change, that he will do something about it, that he will put in an emissions trading scheme and then as he climbs up the greasy pole he runs away from that.