Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with a great deal of pleasure that I rise today to speak in support of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 [No. 2] and related bills and to outline the significance of the scheme to the people of Australia, and specifically the hardworking people in Solomon. This scheme strikes the right balance between supporting growth and jobs now and delivering carbon reduction. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will ensure Australia invests in industries of the future like renewable energy, solar energy and wind farms and in jobs using new technologies like clean coal and geothermal energy, which will create thousands of new, low-pollution jobs. We on this side of the House have been very mindful of the potential impact on jobs, particularly during these difficult economic times. That is why we have taken responsible action by delaying the start of the scheme for one year and committing to a fixed-price phase from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012.

Our government, through the fantastic work of both the Minister for Climate Change and Water and the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, is delivering strong action to tackle climate change. The Rudd government is committed to creating low-pollution jobs for the future as part of our comprehensive approach to combating climate change. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will see, for the first time, a cost put on carbon pollution, which will encourage major polluting businesses to lower their emissions. Funds raised will assist households to adjust to the scheme, making sure Australian families do not carry the cost of climate change. Through us tackling climate change, Australia will see the renewable energy sector grow to 30 times its current size by 2050, creating thousands of new jobs—green jobs, smart jobs.

With that in mind, we have committed over $13 billion to programs that will increase the demand for low-pollution jobs, products and services. As the Deputy Prime Minister said in her speech to celebrate National TAFE Day, last night:

In all the desperate debate that’s occurred over climate change, something has been forgotten. It’s about jobs.

Treasury modelling shows that Australia can continue to achieve strong trend economic growth while making deep cuts in emissions through the CPRS and that almost all industry sectors across the economy will continue to grow. From an employment perspective, all major employment sectors will grow over the years to 2020, substantially increasing employment from today’s levels. National employment is projected to increase by 1.7 million jobs from 2008 to 2020 at the same time as our carbon pollution falls. Jobs will be created in new and established industries alike and will be spread throughout Australia. We have introduced the CPRS legislation back into the House of Representatives. This is the first step. We are determined to pass the legislation this year. Australia has waited too long for action on climate change.

I got our wonderful people in the Parliamentary Library to do some research for me, and I would like to commend Ann Rann and Chris Lawley for their contribution to my speech. I asked them to have a look at all the parliamentary committee reports on climate change that had been made during the period of the last government, because what the opposition have been trying to do in this debate—and I listened closely to a lot of speakers today—is to give the impression to the Australian public that this is something that has just crept up on us. It is as if it has only just occurred since 24 November 2007. That is when this climate change thing started! I heard one member from the opposition saying that we should be going around Australia and consulting on climate change. On 24 November 2007, the consultation was done with the Australian public, when they decided—after 12 long years of denial and of the then government saying that climate change did not exist—to throw the Howard government out of office. The consultation had been done. Let me tell the member for Bowman, who brought that up: the consultation was done.

The opposition go on with the scare stuff. We also saw today a member bringing in loaves of bread and cartons of milk and wanting to know how much the prices for them would go up. Members were looking up into the gallery and saying, ‘Your kids will not have jobs.’ All this was scaremongering, like the sort of stuff they used about Work Choices and about things that you are going to buy at the shopping centre. That is their way of doing business. They also do it with regard to asylum seekers. It is their way of doing things. So I had a little bit of research done for me by the good people in the Library, because I believe that climate change has not snuck up on us. I believe that there have been some reports done in the past. What have we got here? It is a list of House of Representatives standing committees. The first one was an interim report, Regulatory arrangements for trading in greenhouse gas emissions. That was tabled on 23 November 1998. That was 10 years ago.

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