Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

This is a fundamental moment in Australia's history. We are about to devastate the future of this country. We are about to take this country backwards in droves through the mindless ideological bent of the coalition. Australia today will be a laughing stock to the rest of the world. We are sending this country backwards—and all for what? For playing politics: playing politics with Australia's future, playing politics with our environment and playing politics with our children. It is an outrageous moment in Australia's history when the coalition are sending this nation backwards. We know that there are so many of them who do not believe the science. Senator Macdonald's contribution just now makes it clear—the hypocrisy—that in fact he does not have an open mind. He has never had an open mind on this issue. Labor stands by the science. We stand by the economists who have made it very clear that an emissions trading scheme is the way forward for this country—as so many other countries are moving towards, or have already moved towards, including some of our most hugest trading partners—China, the US—