Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Businesses factor in costs and are forward-looking, as you well know, Senator Back. All you have done is pull the carpet out from underneath one of the future growth drivers of this country. How are you going to replace it? The price on carbon acts as a catalyst for transitioning this country to a clean energy future and we are the only party that has shown leadership on this issue. Let us talk a little bit about leadership. Lord Deben, the head of the UK Committee on Climate Change, and a Tory politician, has slammed the Abbott government's push to pull back climate change policies:

It lets down the whole British tradition that a country should have become so selfish about this issue that it’s prepared to spoil the efforts of others and to foil what very much less rich countries are doing … All that pollution which Australia is pushing into the atmosphere is of course changing my climate. It’s a real insult to the sovereignty of other countries … It’s wholly contrary to the science, it’s wholly contradictory to the interests of Australia and I hope that many people in Australia will see when the rest of the world is going in the right direction what nonsense it is for them to be going backwards.

Tory politician! Senator Macdonald is not in here, but I challenged him in the House the other day when he said, 'I have yet to have anyone from that side of the chamber say to me why us cutting our small contribution to global warming is making a difference.' It is making a difference because this country has shown leadership and conviction, and it comes at a very small sacrifice considering what previous generations of this country have had to sacrifice for us. Accepting a $1 or $2 increase on an airfare as a result of the carbon price, or a small increase in my electricity bills, is hardly a sacrifice when we are talking about long-term structural reform. It is long-term structural reform in order to do the right thing for my children and for future generations of this country—not to mention the animals that live in our ecosystem and our oceans and the ecosystem services that support life on this planet.

This is the biggest structural reform this country has seen in decades, and I and the rest of my party will not stand by idly while the government tries to pull the carpet out from under the feet of my children and future generations of Australians.