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

As I've said on many occasions now, the government is committed to effective action on climate change. But we're also committed to ensuring that the agenda that we pursue is environmentally effective and economically responsible. We will not be pursuing an agenda that gratuitously harms the future opportunities of Australians in a way that makes global emissions increase more, that makes the situation for the world environment worse. We want to improve the global emissions outlook, not make it worse. Indeed, Australia as a net exporter of energy—including, of course, as an exporter of Australian coal, displacing more polluting coal from other sources—will continue to help reduce global emissions in the way that we have for some time.