MARK DREYFUS MP

Sustainable House Day sees about 250 homes across the country open their doors to showcase environmentally sustainable and innovative measures, designed to reduce a household's carbon footprint.

When the Liberal Party was formed in 1944, Robert Menzies said the name liberal was chosen to describe a "progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary but believing in the individual, his rights and his enterprise".

I doubt there are many in Australia today who would describe the Liberal Party of Australia in this way.

This week marks 20 years since the superannuation guarantee was announced in the 1991 budget by then Labor treasurer John Kerin; an announcement that laid the groundwork for the superannuation system as we know it today.

Just like Australians have done with water consumption, we need to make a change in the way we think about energy use

Australians are proud of their economy and so they should be - it is one of the strongest in the advanced world.

I've given up expecting the opposition to tell the truth about the government's clean energy future plan. But they could at least tell the truth about their own past positions.

Julie Bishop's criticism that Australian businesses should not be able to buy international carbon permits reveals the complete rejection of basic economics that underpins the opposition's completely discredited climate change policy.

Despite Tony Abbott's four-month-long bricklaying, petrol pumping, fish-slicing fear campaign, Australians continue to engage in the national discussion about climate change.

I am confident that once the carbon price starts on July 1, 2012 Australians will soon see that Mr Abbott's mad and fearful predictions were as groundless as the Great Big Abbott Plebiscite Fiasco.

The adoption of an Emissions Trading Scheme demonstrates that New Zealand recognises the importance of acting on climate change and contributing to international efforts in reducing global pollution.