Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

One Nation opposes this motion. Once again the Greens are pretending Australia has a carbon budget when it does not. Not content with pretending that Climate Change Authority thought bubbles are actual legislation, now Senator Whish-Wilson is giving the Senate the benefit of his advice on reducing a trace gas that is necessary for all life on earth. Carbon budgets are scientific nonsense. Let me give you an example. The Drax power station in the UK was recently converted from burning coal to burning trees. One would think that the Greens would be horrified at this destruction of forests, but no. This was a green energy initiative. Apparently, in carbon budgets, carbon dioxide from coal is bad but carbon dioxide from chopping down and burning trees is good. What? I agree with Senator Whish-Wilson that government policy should be underpinned by verified science. That's why an office of scientific integrity and quality assurance would help the government shape policy based on science, not the Greens' parallel universe.