Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

He launched an extraordinary attack on the ABC for referring to carbon pollution as pollution. He said:

It is a nonsense to describe it as the pollutant. I mean, it is grossly misleading of the public to describe it as a pollutant.

Then last week in the speeches in the Senate, there was Senator Minchin again, and he said:

CO2 is not by any stretch of the imagination a pollutant.

And he went on to say:

… this whole extraordinary scheme … is based on the as yet unproven assertion that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are the main driver of global warming.

Tell that to the climate scientists who are working day and night to alert the world and policy makers to the likely impacts of climate change. Tell that to the research institutions that are producing the work day in and day out to let us, as policy makers, know what the impacts of climate change are likely to be. Tell that to the US government, the Chinese government, the non-government organisations and the scientific communities—all those who recognise that dealing with this risk is one of the most important and urgent tasks we have.

There was Senator Bushby, who said:

I have no choice but to refuse to believe what I am told is truth and to declare myself a ‘sceptic’ when it comes to the issue of mankind’s impact on the climate.

Of course, it is not just in the Senate. It is also in the House of Representatives, where they are going backwards; they are not moving forward. I was so disappointed at the remarks of the member for North Sydney when he was speaking to Karl Stefanovic and said: ‘Look, climate change is real, Karl.’ I think this was mentioned in the House the other day. ‘You know, whether it is made by human beings or not, that is open to dispute.’ I thought to myself: ‘Who is responsible for these carbon dioxide emissions? Perhaps it is the dinosaurs or perhaps the member for North Sydney.’ Then I realised it was. I noticed that the Leader of the Opposition held his You Tube policy announcement speech/reflections/views in a certain park and I thought to myself, on the theme of dinosaurs, ‘I know which park that is—Jurassic Park!’

It is tempting to say that nothing has changed since the last election, but the ugly truth is that the coalition are going backwards on climate change. They are now positioning themselves to the right of the former Prime Minister, John Howard, on climate change. It is hard to believe, but the coalition are now trying to make the former Prime Minister, John Howard, look like Al Gore. The fact is there have been 12 years of climate change scepticism. Scepticism leads to denial. Denial leads to inaction. And inaction imposes costs on the Australian community and on the Australian environment. In this instance our country, a continent that is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, deserves much, much better.

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