Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of answers to questions asked today. If we are to believe Senator Mason, then the sky is falling and we are all Chicken Littles running around, waiting to see civilisation as we know it cease in two weeks time. However, what we need to understand and what we on this side of the chamber and this government recognise is that of course it is in Australia's national interest to continue to work to achieve the international goal of limiting global warming. Everything that has been shaped in the clean energy package is about doing exactly that. It is a critical imperative for us. It is a critical imperative for Australian domestic and international commitments on climate change and clean energy that we stand firm, drive hard change and lead in this debate where others would prefer us to be following along like sheep.

It does not matter who you go to—whether it is the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Academy of Science or any of the science academies around the world—everyone is agreed that climate change is real and action has to be taken to deal with it. The carbon price, despite the nonsense that you have just heard from Senator Mason, is a very realistic carbon price. It is one that, as we heard today in question time, provides the incentives to industry to move to clean energy technologies and it gives signals to industry about where to move. I do not think you can be clearer than that about the purpose and the direction of the clean energy package and the carbon price.

The challenge we have had, and the way we have dealt with the package, has been to ensure that those people who are least able to meet the needs of the carbon price are compensated. An extensive carbon compensation package has been outlined and we have heard about it incessantly, week after week, in this place and in the public debate. However, we have seen that there are those who are prepared to use sleight of hand. While the federal government compensates, governments like that of New South Wales are very keen to see what they can do to claw back some of that money for their own purposes. We saw that last week in the announcement by the New South Wales government to take some of that money from New South Wales pensioners living in public housing and add it to the public housing rents. This is just a blatant cash grab by the New South Wales government. It is quite a shameful exercise. The New South Wales government says, 'We need this money to repair and support public housing,' when in fact the Treasury model shows us that the cost of house repairs as a result of the carbon price is less than one per cent, which is around a third of what the New South Wales government is claiming.

So let us be quite honest and realistic about this nonsense debate that we have been having: it is a stunt. It is the continuing circus routine that we have seen about fear and misrepresentation. As the date gets closer, the rhetoric gets more and more ridiculous, because the opposition will say anything and do anything. They just will not accept the facts.

The Rio 20 summit, which is being held this week, is all about our environment. Everywhere around the world people are talking about climate change, environmental damage and how we can take action on that. On the other side, we still have the debate about whether climate change is real. So that is the nonsense basis on which we have to have a debate here today. Nevertheless, we will continue to see this debate carried on—because on 1 July the sky will not fall. People will move to the clean carbon economy. People will start to understand that it is in everyone's interests, and I will be very glad for it to be here. (Time expired)