MARK DREYFUS MP

Putting a price on carbon is the most environmentally effective and cheapest way to cut pollution.

Supported by an $800,000 federal government grant funded through the Disability Employment Assistance Program, Wallara Industries is assisting people with an intellectual or developmental disability to undertake productive and meaningful work.

After decades of parliamentary debate about climate change, we have before this House a plan that has majority support within this parliament, a plan that will cut carbon pollution and drive investment in clean energy technologies and infrastructure, like solar, gas and wind.

The Government's clean energy plan is going to drive investment around the country - and it's going to drive the research expertise and infrastructure to underpin it.

We say that climate change is a global problem. It is a problem of the most severe kind - an environmental problem confronting not only Australia but the planet. It is one that needs to be grappled with by cutting carbon emissions.

I am more than happy to talk about the government's climate change policy, about how we are getting on with the job of legislating a carbon price for Australia and how we are getting on with the job of legislating to tackle climate change by putting a price tag on every tonne of pollution that is produced by around 500 large polluters.

Wellington's Climate Change and Business Conference to outline Australia’s new policy directions to address climate change through reducing carbon emissions.

The argument for a market based mechanism is based on the simple fact that Australians at work and in their lives generally, are far better placed to deliver an efficient transformation in the economy than any minister or bureaucrat.

Under their plan, Australia will not reach that emissions reduction target or anything like it by 2020. If we proceed down the path that the coalition is proceeding on, it will commit Australia to purchasing international permits at a cost of billions and billions of dollars to the taxpayers of this country.

Take a Break program operates from our neighbourhood and community centres and provides respite for parents and carers of children up to the age of six, enabling them to participate in recreational and social activities or undertake volunteer or part-time work that would otherwise not be possible. It is disappointing that the new Liberal government has decided to cut the $1.9 million needed for the Take a Break program.