David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning, we saw an act of complete bastardry against the Australian people here at Australian Parliament House. The Greens support group Extinction Rebellion vandalised this place—the people's house, as it is known. This is what happens when you choose slogans over actions. Labor and the Greens have continually used slogans. We, the Morrison government, choose actions—actions like beating our Kyoto target by 439 million tonnes; actions like having the most rooftop solar photovoltaic in the world; actions like reducing 639 million tonnes of carbon emissions in the last two years, the equivalent of taking all Australian cars—that is 14.7 million cars—off the road; actions like $20 billion of committed investment in new clean energy, to drive over $80 billion of public and private innovation, creating an estimated 160,000 jobs. We are a government of actions, not slogans—actions that actually reduce emissions, not destroy jobs or impose costs on Australian households, businesses and industries.

The acts of vandalism are typical of the other side of this chamber. It's their approach; it's all noise and no action. When it comes to addressing an issue such as climate change, only meaningful action will deliver the results. Slogans won't do it. The members opposite here, who have celebrated this morning's acts of bastardry, should be ashamed of themselves, and I trust that the ACT Magistrates Court will deal with the rest.