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

Yet again Senator Abetz asks me a question which makes a false assertion. Implicit in his question very clearly is that the United States will not meet the pledges it made. That is the implicit proposition in his question, because the assumption that the government is making in its modelling—as Treasury has explained to senators on the other side—is that the United States and other major economies will meet the commitments they made at Copenhagen and Cancun. Surprise, surprise! What did President Obama say on this issue when he visited Australia? He said that the United States would meet the pledges it made at Copenhagen and Cancun. So yet again we have those on the other side asking questions which assume nonfacts. What they cannot abide is not only that the legislation has already passed the Senate—