Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to reports that President Trump is poised to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Just before midnight last night, in response to those reports, the chair of the coalition's environment and energy committee, the member for Hughes, posted: 'It's not confirmed yet, but have the champagne on ice.' John Howard followed the United States out of Kyoto when George W Bush rejected it. So how can anyone have confidence that this government will not do exactly that with the Paris Agreement?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question, and I repeat today what I said on 16 November when the treaty was ratified: when Australia makes a commitment to a global agreement, we follow through—and that is exactly what we are doing. We are committed to the Paris Agreement, and we are on track to meet our targets. We are committed to ensuring that Australia has affordable and reliable energy and to achieving that while meeting our global commitments for emissions reduction. That is our commitment.

What we are doing is taking real and practical action to get that job done. The Deputy Prime Minister talked about our commitment to Snowy Hydro 2.0—the largest commitment to storage to support renewable energy in the Southern Hemisphere. That is a vital project.

The Labor Party, especially in the honourable member's state, allowed renewable energy, wind, to be rolled out to such an extent that it can provide well over 100 per cent of the state's electricity but then, at the next minute, zero—no storage; no plan; no backup. The Labor Party has allowed gas prices to go through the roof on the east coast, and we have had to take the steps to bring them down. The decisive action that I took, as Prime Minister, to ensure that we would limit exports so as to be confident that gas demand was met on the east coast of Australia has already seen the wholesale price come down, as it ought and as it needs to do. That is our commitment: affordable, reliable energy, and meeting our emissions reduction targets in accordance with our commitment to the Paris treaty.