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

As much as I enjoy this conversation amongst Labor and the Greens, former coalition partners, let me get back to the question. Firstly, all of the modelling of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the carbon tax actually showed emissions would continue to increase, assuming that the economy would continue to grow. There was a period during the Labor-Greens administration where the economy weakened quite a bit compared to what was anticipated, so emissions in that context were lower than what had been anticipated. That is true, but only the Greens would argue that somehow removing a carbon tax hasn't actually reduced the cost of generating energy. If you reduce a government imposed tax, all other things being equal, that reduces the cost and indeed it has. The cost today would be higher if it weren't for the removal of the carbon tax. Let me tell you again: we have a plan to meet our emissions reduction targets signed onto in Paris for 2030, as we have a plan to meet and indeed exceed our emissions reduction targets for 2020. (Time expired)