Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to Minister Combet's interview on 7.30 last night in which he was asked of the carbon tax:

Will it cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions?—

and responded—

Yes it will. The minimum amount of emissions reductions achieved in the year 2020 will be 160 million tonnes.

A clarification was then sought, with the interviewer asking whether those cuts would be in Australia, to which Minister Combet replied:

In Australia, that's correct, …

Isn't it true that, even with Labor's carbon tax, emissions in Australia will actually rise from 578 million tonnes in 2010 to 621 million tonnes in 2020, a rise of 43 million tonnes not a cut of 160 million tonnes? Why did Minister Combet seek to mislead Australians on national television last night?