Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I've got to say I'm somewhat surprised that Senator Di Natale is coming back here. The first point I would make is that, of course, the government is absolutely committed to effective action on climate change. I want to just remind people that Australia has exceeded the emissions reduction targets for Kyoto 1, is on track to exceed the emissions reduction targets for Kyoto 2, and that we will meet and probably exceed our emissions reduction target of 26 per cent on 2005 levels agreed to in Paris by 2030.

What I would say is that on this side of the chamber we believe that we can pursue effective action on climate change in a way that is economically responsible. We don't believe that whacking on a higher tax will be an effective way to address climate change when all it will do is shift emissions, alongside jobs and economic activity, to other parts of the world where emissions will be higher for the same amount of economic output, which, as I seem to recall, must have been the Greens' position when the Greens voted with the Liberal-National Party to defeat Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. If you were so committed to a carbon pollution reduction scheme, why didn't you vote for it? I mean, you come in here, week in, week out, trying to take the high moral ground. The truth is that when you had the chance, you didn't do it. I mean, when you had the chance, I could only assume that you took our view that we needed effective environmental action in a way that was economically responsible, and that is why you sided with us in voting down Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. So don't ask questions of us.

We are committed to effective action on climate change. We are delivering the outcomes that we promised that we would deliver. We are on track to deliver the outcomes that we promised for the future. That has been consistently our position over the last five-and-a-half-years. So, Senator Di Natale, maybe you should ask yourself a question, or maybe you should ask Senator Siewert a question: why she, alongside Senator Hanson-Young, voted with Liberal-National senators against Senator Wong over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.