Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As Senator Seselja was just outlining there, really Labor is just incredibly cruel. They are incredibly cruel to their members in the Senate that are actively wanting to see the Labor Party adopt some sensible, quality projects. But they're also very, very cruel to the Australian people. This is, I think, the nub of the issue. They're taking the Australian people for mugs by setting up this bright, shiny target that's somewhere off in the never-never—2050—to try to convince the Australian people that they actually have a plan to deal with what is a very serious issue not only for this country but indeed for the planet. They're proposing a target of net zero by 2050, but they really have no plan whatsoever. How do we know that? Because the first target, which ought to be recognised and laid out very clearly in this place, so we can actually understand what they're on about, would be a 2030 target. But do they have a 2030 target? No! We don't know what it is. There's no plan. These guys really don't have any plan to deal with what would otherwise be a very, very serious issue. Labor has not learnt from their climate policy mistake. Their net zero emissions target by 2050 is a target without a plan to get there. A 2050 target is no substitute for a 2030 target.

Speaking of people that I think they have dudded and been cruel to, let's talk about Joel Fitzgibbon, a member in the other place. In October last year Joel Fitzgibbon was running around calling on the Labor Party to drop its emissions reductions target and adopt the coalition's policy of 26 per cent to 28 per cent by 2030. But this week he has backflipped, penning an article in The Newcastle Herald in support of Labor's new net zero emissions target. Maybe he's changed his mind because Mike Freelander, Mark Dreyfus and other members in the other place—Tanya Plibersek and Catherine King—have slapped him down. Maybe he has changed his mind—