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

Senator Waters, the reason what I'm explaining to you is directly relevant is that if we did not do what we're doing then we would make the challenges for the global environment worse. If we were to decide to stop producing and exporting Australian coal and it were to be displaced by coal from other sources which are more polluting, the emissions in the world would go up. If we decided to pursue the reckless agenda that you're suggesting, we would shift jobs, economic activities and emissions overseas where, for same level of economic output, emissions would be higher and the world environment would be worse off. That is why what I'm saying to you is directly relevant.

The course of action that you're suggesting would not only harm working families around Australia; it would harm the global environment. This government will never do anything to gratuitously harm the Australian people in a way that would then also harm the global environment. Our agenda—we are committed to effective action on climate change, we are committed to taking action that is environmentally effective and economically responsible, and we will not make meaningless commitments without being able to tell the Australian people what the impact is going to be on them, on their jobs, on their future job security, and on their future job opportunities, particularly if it means making the situation for the global environment worse.