AUST: Minister proves his ignorance on climate related laws by angry outburst

Minchin in Senate fracas over climate change
June 13, 2007

THE SENATE erupted during question time today with an extraordinary outburst from Finance Minister Nick Minchin in response to a question about the government's response to climate change.
Greens senator Christine Milne had asked whether the government had considered introducing feed-in laws, which guarantee prices to renewable energy producers when they supply green electricity to the grid.

Senator Minchin responded initially by attacking Labor and the Greens' policies of slashing Australia's emissions by 60 and 80 per cent respectively by 2050, which he described as absurd.

This prompted Senator Milne to remark that the minister had “no idea what a feed-in law is because he didn't mention it once in that response”.

“Will the government now examine now examine feed-in laws as a complementary initiative to an emissions trading system and a renewable energy target so that we do achieve a rollout of renewable energy,” she asked.

“What do you understand by feed-in laws, senator?”

A clearly annoyed Senator Minchin rose to his feet and shouted his response, pointing his finger across the chamber where Senator Milne sat.

“What I understand is that your policy would trash this economy and would put thousands of Australians out of work,” he said.

“You don't care about the workers of Australia, you just want to pursue your blind goal to trash the Australian economy.”

- AAP

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21898804-2702,00.html