Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps he might walk on the water once he reduces the levels. Mr Dreyfus was asked by a journalist how much a five per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by Australia would mean to the increase in sea levels. He was then asked, ‘Will it be a couple of millimetres?’ Mr Dreyfus answered, ‘It will be more than that.’ So five per cent by Australia alone will mean that we will reduce sea levels by a couple of millimetres! Nobody in their right mind could possibly believe that sort of ridiculous rubbish, but it is part of the scaremongering campaign being undertaken by Mr Rudd.

The coalition’s position is quite clear. While none of us is understanding enough to be able to comment on whether the science of man-made emissions-causing climate change is true or not, I am one of those who goes along with the proposition because I am not a scientist—and the scientists seem to be evenly divided—but if everybody else in the world does it then Australia should do it too. However, we should not be destroying our economy in Australia and we should not be destroying the jobs of our fellow Australians by rushing into this ill-thought-out, poorly designed emissions trading scheme in front of the rest of the world.

Anyone with a modicum of sense would know that reducing emissions in Australia by five or even 25 per cent will not make any difference to the changing climate of the world. It will make absolutely no difference to the changing sea levels of the world. What we have to get is agreement from the big emitters: America, China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Argentina, South Africa, Colombia—all of those places that compete with the commodities in which Australia trades. When the world does move, so should Australia. That has always been the coalition’s view. That is why we started this whole debate, with the report from the former Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Mr Shergold. We have been looking at this for a long time, but Australia cannot act by itself. Unless other countries are prepared to do their bit, nothing Australia does will make one iota of difference to the changing climate of the world.

That is why this mad rush before Copenhagen in less than two months time is so difficult to understand, unless it is part of the socialist conspiracy to destroy the Australian economy and have all of Australia entirely dependent upon government handouts. I fear that that is where Mr Rudd is going. He is creating a socialist society that Gough Whitlam could only have dreamed about. But Mr Rudd is doing it by making absolutely everybody dependent on government handouts. Mr Rudd is going to tax every Australian to the hilt. Every Australian’s electricity bill and every business that operates in Australia will be taxed to the hilt by this Labor government. It will come as no surprise because that is what Labor is renowned at doing: increasing taxes. What Mr Rudd will then do, having massively increased the tax take from all Australians, is decide who should be favoured and who gets the money that he has collected. He will socially engineer a country like Australia that has been built on free enterprise, choice and freedom. That is the design of Mr Rudd’s plan. There can be no other reason for taking this action well in advance of the rest of the world. It will make not one iota of difference to the changing climate of the world. That is why Mr Rudd and his scheme should be rejected. That is why most Australians want it delayed until we see what the rest of the world is doing in Copenhagen. I certainly hope Mr Rudd takes note.