David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Complain all you will, Senator Abetz, but Andrew Robb is clear that it is $70 billion, we are clear that it is $70 billion and the commentariat is clear that it is $70 billion. Given your longstanding record in ignoring science, I do not doubt that you will give it a go here too. But $70 billion over four years is your challenge and, when we look behind the veil at that $70 billion, what do we find? We find that it is going to cost you over $27 billion to meet your commitment to scrap our carbon price. We find that $3.2 billion will have to be found to fund your direct action plan. Your direct action plan, borrowed from the ideologues of North Korea, East Germany, Romania and the Soviet Union at its finest, actually aspires to meet the same target as ours. But you have done away with old-fashioned notions such as market forces and demand and supply. You have moved forward into a magnificent five-year plan from Chairman Abbott. Above and beyond that, you have to come up with $24 billion to refund big polluters for carbon permits. Refund polluters for carbon permits—one might think that was— (Time expired)