Ivana Bacik (Independent)

We need to ensure this Government gets its priorities right and the treatment of children should be uppermost in our priorities. I support others who have called for those debates today. It is essential.

I ask the Leader for a response to a question I have raised many times in this House regarding the Climate Protection Bill. It is another matter which should be a priority for the Government. We are entering very important international talks on climate change in Copenhagen this December, yet we still have no legislation to ensure binding commitments to meeting targets on carbon emission reductions is in place. I put this issue forward in a Bill which came before this House in October 2007. At that time I was promised more Government time. I am sorry the Deputy Leader is not here because it was he who promised that to me on the record.

I ask the Leader for more time for the Climate Protection Bill and a guarantee we will debate it between now and when we send our negotiating team to Copenhagen in December. It is essential we put legislation in place and I am backed by Friends of the Earth and a range of other NGOs in the Stop Climate Chaos campaign who will be lobbying all of us in this House to ensure we have binding legislation in place. I ask the Leader for an answer.