George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Isn't it the case that the government's heroic assumptions about its carbon tax rest on there being a global carbon price and international emissions trading in place by 2016? Given that the congress of the United States recently voted against participating in Europe's trading scheme, Canada's foreign minister has said that his nation would never, ever introduce an ETS and the Japanese government has dismissed calls for a new global deal by 2015, why is the government irresponsibly rushing ahead without any meaningful international support?