Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz, you would be the best of them. The problem is that you do not actually believe there is any need to take action on climate change at all. That is the problem—that we still have opposite us a bunch of deniers, a bunch of people who do not believe there is a need to take any action on climate change at all, despite the fact that prior to the 2007 election Mr Howard's and the coalition's policy was to take action.

We have been in this chamber since question time, and 20 minutes have passed since question time expired. We have seen a hopping Senator Joyce, hopping all the time. The only difference between you and Danny Kaye, Senator Joyce, is you do not wear a court jester outfit like Danny Kaye used to do in the movies.

But we never really hear any explanation from the other side about what they might do. What they fail to tell the Australian public is that they have a target of five per cent by 2020. You have a plan to introduce legislation that replaces our legislation. So let us be honest about this. Instead of playing to the little audience of six around you, let us play to the gallery. Let us play to the people listening to the broadcast. What you do not tell the Australian public is that you plan to replace this legislation.

You will take money off families. You will slug families $1,300 a year. You will expect your farmers, Senator Nash, and your aluminium workers, Senator Joyce, to dip into their pockets, into their household budgets, to pay you $1,300 a year so that you can pass that on to the big polluters. You actually think that by giving the big polluters more money in their budgets somehow you will magically change their behaviour. Your policy is to reward the big polluters in some magical hope they will say: 'Thanks for the cash from families. We'll now try and reduce our carbon emissions.'

You are totally dishonest with the Australian public. You are totally dishonest with the people who are listening to you on the broadcast. You talk about repealing this legislation but you never, ever mention the 'PS' at the bottom of the piece of paper, the fine print that says: 'We're going to replace it with our own plan.' You have a five per cent reduction target by 2020, the same as us. You never stump up and admit that. The hopping little Senator Joyce never, ever admits that. The other thing you do not admit is that you are going to slug families. You are going to make families pay for your plan. What you are hoping is that when big polluters get this bucket of money they will suddenly say, 'Thanks for the cash—now we're going to change our mind and change what we do.'

What we have decided to do is to force the big polluters to change their behaviour, and the way we do that is by pricing carbon. They are going to pay for the carbon they put into the atmosphere. We have said that we will compensate and we have started to compensate households, families and pensioners around the country. After all the scaremongering that you do, all the diatribe that we hear in this chamber, it is time for you to stump up and be honest with the Australian people about exactly what you are planning to do.

Come next Sunday, people will realise that the plan we have in place is smart, is sensible. People, particularly young people, said that they wanted a government to tackle the big reforms in this country. They want a government that is going to protect the environment. They want a government that is going to embark on tackling climate change and they will realise that this is the way to do it. Your plan is to unwind all the assistance, take it off them, slug them even further and somehow think that magically big polluters will change their behaviour. Senator Nash, that is what is stupid. (Time expired)