Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Gallagher for her question, because, certainly, what our government is quite proudly doing at present is preparing the commitments and plans that the Prime Minister will take to the climate change conference in Glasgow. Those commitments and plans entail planning in relation not just to what the emissions reduction framework and commitments will look like but how we will protect the jobs of those communities across Australia facing change brought about by a changing international environment—how we will protect the jobs, how we will protect those communities, how we will ensure that they can have confidence that they will be supported through the transition that is going to occur as a result of a changed global investment environment and a changed environment in relation to many of our key export markets and the commitments they're making. These are changes that are happening.

It sounds to me, from the tone of the question by Senator Gallagher, that she's happy to leave those communities behind—to not care about the jobs and to think that if there is some investment in protecting those communities, in supporting them to take advantage of the opportunities to come, that that should just be ignored. Those of us on this side—the Liberals and the Nationals—will certainly not leave regional Australia behind. We will not leave regional communities behind. We will make sure that, just as we invest to pursue lower emissions and to work towards net zero, we equally invest to protect Australian communities and the regions that we have relied upon as a nation for so long for so many export communities, and to ensure that they have a bright future—that they can seize the opportunities ahead, be they new energy opportunities or be they other new opportunities that can be created.

For Senator Gallagher to come here and want to ask a question about wasting money, I saw her yesterday—she seemed to walk away from the $300 vaccine payments. Talk about a $6 billion waste of money—paying people to do something that Australians have, thankfully, already turned out to do in their millions.