MARK DREYFUS MP

By controlled early burning, it's possible to significantly reduce the number of uncontrolled late-season wildfires and the carbon emissions they release.

Tackling climate change is major international challenge, of a scale far beyond anything the world has had to confront before. We stand in uncharted territory.

It seems that a price on carbon is so well established in Britain, where it is common ground among all major parties, government and opposition, that even a major increase in the emissions reduction target is no longer considered headline news.

The Premier should withdraw the repeal bill introduced by his Attorney General. If he does not, the Victorian community will have confirmation of the true nature of his very illiberal Liberal Government, a government which is clearly far more socially conservative than it admitted in last year's election.

To outsiders in the international community, Australia looks very much like the 'lucky country' that we've been described as throughout our nation's history.

But it's not dumb luck that got us here, and it won't be dumb luck that takes us forward to the next chapter of our economic future. It'll be smart decisions for our nation's economy, combined with hard work and a sense of optimism about our future – something we must never let Tony Abbott take away from us.

As Australia takes the bold steps towards a low carbon economic future, Tony Abbott would do Australians a better service by stepping away from the carnival tent and on to the main stage.

The high country is again free of cattle, the short-lived reintroduction of grazing by the Baillieu government having been brought to an end, not with a bang but with a whimper.

Both countries are developed, industrialised societies, and both need to make the transition to a low carbon economy.

New Zealanders rightly see that transition as an opportunity, not a burden.

It may suit Tony Abbott's political ambition to belittle the efforts of other nations and use their supposed inadequate action as an excuse for doing little or nothing ourselves. Given the choice between reckless rhetoric and the facts, I'll take the facts any day.

After weeks of hysterical commentary, the muzzling of challengers within his own party, and invented numbers and diversions, the truth has started to penetrate Abbott's "shock and anger" campaign.