JOURNALIST: Penny Wong whose idea was it to shelve the emissions trading scheme?

WONG: This is a Government decision and it's a Government decision that reflects the unfortunate reality that Tony Abbott has back flipped on the Liberal Party's previous position and now is opposed to any action on climate change.

JOURNALIST: Well that was the case last year and you've known that since then. Did you try to convince the Prime Minister not to shelve the scheme?

WONG: Look as I said, this is a Government decision. The Government remains committed to action on climate change. We know that the CPRS is the cheapest and most effective way of tackling it and we remain committed to the bipartisan emissions reductions targets that we signed up to and that Tony Abbott has also just signed up to.

JOURNALIST: If climate change is the greatest moral challenge of our time, isn't it worth going to a double dissolution election to make it happen?

WONG: I think we are dealing with the political reality as I said. That the Opposition has made its views clear, it has back flipped on the previous position of support for action on climate change and it is no longer in that world.

JOURNALIST: But you could still go to a double dissolution election and the chances are you would have a majority if both Houses were sitting to push your emissions trading scheme through.

WONG: Well, I think the Prime Minister has made his views on these issues clear and he's indicated very clearly that Australians do expect their politicians in general to serve out a full term and that's the view that the Government has taken. What we are dealing with is the unfortunate reality that Tony Abbott has changed his position.

JOURNALIST: You always knew that the rest of the world may delay action on climate change or fail to reach agreement. That was always on the cards. If your emissions trading scheme is a good action plan, isn't it just a matter of timing. That it all comes down to election timing and you, the Government, just want to neutralise Tony Abbott's great big new tax scare campaign?

WONG: Alex, action on climate change remains the right thing to do. It was last year, it was when John Howard was prime minister and it still is.

JOURNALIST: So if that's the case, why not put it to a double dissolution election?

WONG: And the Government has tried to do the right thing. We have put this scheme, this plan to the Senate on a number of occasions. We got to a vote at the end of last year, were we saw two Liberal Senators cross the floor. Regrettably we saw the Greens voting with Tony Abbott to stop the scheme.

The Government has to deal with the political reality that we find ourselves in. This remains the right policy.

JOURNALIST: You've always argued the longer Australia delays putting a price on carbon, the more expensive it will be. Is that still the case?

WONG: Absolutely. It is absolutely the case.

JOURNALIST: So when you finally decide that the time is right to press ahead with an emission trading scheme, it's going to cost Australia more?

WONG: It's absolutely the case that action on climate change last year was the right thing to do, but it is not the Government that has prevented Australia from taking action it is the Senate led by Tony Abbott.

The Government did make clear last year that passing the scheme was the best thing to do. Action on climate change then was the right thing to do, and it still is. Just as it was when John Howard received advice from his bureaucrats about this issue.

ENDS