Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. Exposure drafts of the legislation were available for many months. There is a current joint select committee examining these bills, not to mention a Senate select committee examining the issue. The legislation has been scrutinised. The parliamentary committee process is already at work on these bills. I should also add that coalition members of parliament were given the opportunity of contributing and being part of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, given an opportunity to be part of drafting, given an opportunity to be involved in framing and debating, and they rejected it. They boycotted it and decided they wanted no part of it. We understand why. They do not believe in climate change or taking action on climate change, so they have boycotted the process.

Let us be clear about that. They have tried to stall it at every step of the way. We know that during the debate on the bills to enact the CPRS coalition senators time and time again attempted to filibuster the debate for days and days on end. We know where that ended. This has been the tactic of the Liberal Party and the Nationals. Once again, they come into this chamber with one tactic and one tactic alone—to delay the bills. They are not trying to delay the bills; they are trying to kill the bills because they do not believe in climate change.

We know that that is where the Liberal Party stands on this. This is a stalling tactic. There have been 36 parliamentary committee inquiries that have looked at this issue, have looked at the issue of climate change, have looked at what credible steps a government can take to fight climate change. And the stakes are high. We know the economic cost, we know the environmental cost, and at the same time as that the Australian people want the government to take action on climate change. They do not want stalling; they want action. That is exactly what these bills do. It is exactly why the government brought these bills to the chamber and it is exactly why we should support the report from the Selection of Bills Committee.