SENATOR JENNY MCALLISTER
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES 
SENATOR FOR NEW SOUTH WALES
 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
TUESDAY 4 DECEMBER 2018
 
SUBJECTS: Climate change and energy policy
 
SENATOR JENNY MCALLISTER, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES:  
Overnight David Attenborough has addressed hundreds of delegates at the UN’s conference on climate change in Poland and this is what he had to say: He said “Right now we are facing a manmade disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change”. And in making those remarks - and they were very powerful remarks - David Attenborough named the challenge and he is on the same page as the tens of thousands of school children who marched on this issue just a few days ago.
 
Unfortunately those children are receiving no response, no meaningful answer from this Government. In fact, all they receive from Liberals is ridicule. These kids know the situation. We need to act on climate change, it is a crisis. But instead of a policy to address climate change, all we’ve had for five years is denialism and backbiting around energy policy. Now this is a disaster for the climate but it is also a disaster for the energy users. Just yesterday, a whole range of energy companies came out and smashed down the proposal for divestment powers presented by Mr Frydenberg. This is an attack, and frankly a huge blow to Mr Frydenberg’s personal credibility.
 
The Liberal Party need to develop a serious policy on climate change. They need to develop a serious policy for energy and if they are unwilling to do so, they should get out of the way and call an election.
 
ENDS
 
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