Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is disgraceful that a lie was perpetrated over the course of the 2013 election when former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd went out into the community and said that he would get rid of the carbon tax as long as it was replaced by an ETS. He put that right out there and it was a lie because an emissions trading scheme is already legislated for—it is the law; we have one right now. I would again urge Labor to support the Greens in disallowing the government's attempt to tear down the regulation that allows for the carbon permit auctions to take place. If the repeal bill does not get through the next Senate, businesses will rush to buy future-dated permits but they will not be able to because the Labor Party has sided with the Prime Minister. What the Labor Party are actually doing is disadvantaging Australian businesses and throwing them into turmoil by taking away the mechanism to buy permits and move to an emissions trading scheme in the specified time frame. I urge the Senate to support the disallowance.