Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator, I go back to what I said at the beginning. We recognise this is a transition that is going to take time. We don't believe that the way in which we either reach our own domestic emissions targets or contribute to global emissions reducing over the trajectory that has to occur is by simply shutting down parts of our economy. We don't believe that. Now, what we do have to do is to transition in the way we are doing, and we've put in place the safeguards mechanism, and we have a capacity investment scheme, which the minister announced last week. They are all about making sure we make that transition.

I have said many times in this place precisely that: that climate change is a national security issue, and it is an economic issue, as well as an environmental issue.