Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I effectively answered the question in my first couple of words. The government absolutely stands by our assertion that we will comfortably meet the emissions reduction target that we have committed to in a bipartisan fashion. What I would also say to the Senate is that Senator Milne has absolutely no credibility when it comes to emissions reduction efforts, because Senator Milne is the leader of a party that stands for regular reductions in the real value of the excise on fuel. Senator Milne is the leader of a party that stands for a proposition that we should give money collected from big oil companies back to those big oil companies.

Senator Milne is the Leader of the Greens political party who has led the Greens from the wilderness into the political desert of oblivion. We do know that the member for Melbourne, Mr Bandt, is out there waiting in the wings to lead the Greens out of the desert and back into greener pastures. So when Senator Milne comes in here and talks about the capacity of Australia to meet emissions reduction targets, if she wants to have any credibility whatsoever in relation to these matters then the first thing she should do is indicate the support of the Greens political party for the validation of the regular indexation of the excise on fuel that has been announced by the government in the budget and was initiated this week.