Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Waters for her question. The Australian government of course welcomes the IPCC report. I think even you, Senator Waters, would acknowledge that there's been a significant change, in terms of the issues of climate change which the IPCC were dealing with in their report, between our government and the former government and, in particular, the greater commitments that we have made as a government to addressing the issues of climate change and starting the process of increasing the speed at which our economy is decarbonised. That, unfortunately, is not an easy thing to do. You can't snap your fingers and suddenly go from a fossil fuel supported economy to a renewable economy. You just can't do it. I wish you could. I wish I could do that by clicking my fingers. But we can't do it. This government is moving down the path of decarbonisation, but we're doing it in a sensible way. We're trying to bring the community with us, and I think we're doing that. We brought them with us—

Well, they voted for us at the last election, Senator McKim! They voted for us. You don't like it, but they voted for us as a government. They voted for our policies, not your policies, and they certainly didn't vote for the opposition's policies. (Time expired)