John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I will direct the Leader of the Opposition’s attention to the ABARE study, which spelt out in detail the implications of a 60 per cent reduction by the year 2050. I would invite—I would not be so presumptuous as to direct—the Leader of the Opposition to use common sense and extrapolate that and imagine what the implications are of the other proposition he has embraced, and that is a 30 per cent reduction by the year 2020.

What the Leader of the Opposition is arguing is that in a bare 13 years we cut by 30 per cent our consumption of electricity and that we cut by 30 per cent our use of motor vehicles and trucks, our agricultural activities and all the other things that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. That would do great damage to the Australian economy. It would cost tens of thousands of jobs, particularly in the coal industry. It is a scenario that I do not embrace. While ever this government remains in office we will not sell out the medium and longer term interests of the Australian economy and the medium and long-term interests of Australian workers for a particular commitment to a specific target. What we on the contrary will embrace is an approach that in a practical way, as outlined by the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, tackles the problem of deforestation around the world. Deforestation in fact contributes more to greenhouse gas emissions than does the entirety of the contribution of the transport sector. If we were able to achieve even modest outcomes in relation to deforestation, the greenhouse gas emissions eliminated thereby would far exceed those postulated by the implementation of the Kyoto protocol. What we need in relation to climate change are decisions taken by people who have been tested by experience and who understand that you need a balanced approach which produces a measured reduction in greenhouse gas emission but not at the price of destroying thousands of jobs for Australian workers, particularly in the coalmining industry.

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