Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Canavan, my friend, you've had eight years to work out your position and I know that you're still trying to work out if you're back to being Marxist Matt, or KPMG Matt or Productivity Commission Matt. Labor will be supporting the suspension of standing orders because we do think that it is an important time to debate climate change policy in this country. However, we will be opposing the Greens motion, which as I say, we have just been handed a copy of. The motion does not reflect Labor's position when it comes to mid-term targets. We have been very clear all along that we will be releasing our position on mid-term targets after the Glasgow conference, once we have a clear idea of what the rules of the road are for the world on this matter. So we won't be supporting a Greens motion which seeks to set a particular mid-term target at this point in time.

I might say that it is disappointing, at a moment when there is broad community support for serious action on climate change—including net zero emissions by 2050—that, rather than focusing on the government, the Greens have put up a motion which they know will divide non-government parties. So, yet again, we see the Greens more interested in stunts and wedges rather than actually working together against the government, which is seeking to take us backwards.