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

That is right. I will briefly touch on the amendments that have been put forward by the good member for Groom. He is a good fella; he is a good friend of mine, actually. I have his amendments in my hand. It was said during this debate earlier today that we have not read the amendments—that we all just come out and read the script as it is delivered, straight from the Prime Minister’s office. What a load of rot. People on this side of the House actually have a bit of passion about climate change. Just because I am based in Darwin, it does not mean that I do not have feelings for those families that live in Flynn, Dawson and Capricornia—I do. We on this side take a holistic approach to being in government. I worry about the people of Page, and I see the good member for Page in the House this afternoon, because she cares about the climate change issue. There is only one person from the opposition here and he is on duty. I respect that he is, I suppose, on quorum duty for their side, but there is not another one in here. If they really cared about challenging it they would not have gagged their own debate as they did this afternoon—they were unbelievable.

So those opposite have no credibility whatsoever on this. They are broken into four groups. The first is the hesitators, the guys that sit on these reports for 10 years and do nothing. The hesitators are sitting back and waiting for some leadership to be shown on this issue. At the moment they are looking to East Timor, Tonga, Nauru or maybe the Solomon Islands: ‘Can we get them to show a bit of leadership on behalf of the Pacific? We in Australia want to sit back and do nothing.’ That is what the former government used to do: ‘Why should we go ahead and show leadership on this issue? Why shouldn’t we just sit back and wait?’ They are the hesitators. Then there are the imitators. I love the imitators; they are a good group. They are the ones who, when they are out in their electorates, are a little bit left of centre: ‘Yeah, climate change is a really big issue. I’m really worried about the future of the planet.’ Then, when they come in here, they do not say a word; they just sit there. They just leave it to the hard right. The hard right are the terminators. They are the terminators because they cut down anybody that has an opinion on climate change in the opposition party room. Bang!—they are cut straight down. So they have the hesitators, the imitators and the terminators. That is what they have on their side of the parliament. There is another bloke I will not mention who is right out there by himself in the way that he thinks of climate change. I will not even mention him.

This is a serious issue that was delayed for too long under the former government. What really annoys me about this is that they want to lead the Australian public to believe that we have just snuck up on them and put this out there, when I have just listed 10 different reports that were tabled—and I will table those—over the life of the former government that talked about climate change, the Kyoto protocol, carbon emissions and all the things that this debate is about.

As I see it, the reason it is vital that we take a position to Copenhagen is that we can fight for our high-emitting industries, fight for the coal industry and fight for the agricultural industry. We are in the room and we have our position. There is no need for us to wait any longer. We as a country should be showing leadership on climate change. We should be going to Copenhagen in a positive manner to say: ‘This is what we are doing for our industries, for our people, for our biodiversity, for our sustainable cities and for our coastal areas that have been eroded by the rising of the sea. And we are going to show leadership.’ That is what good leaders do. That is what our Prime Minister has done, not only on this issue. He is a leader on this issue but he is also a leader on the global financial crisis.

The parliament welcomed a visiting ambassador from a European country during the week and a question was asked of him by those opposite regarding the ‘global financial downturn’—I think that was their phrase. This individual said that they had to bail out one of their banks to the tune of $60 billion, which is a little more than a downturn. Another member opposite thought he would throw a question out about ‘this climate change stuff’. This guy rattled off a few things and said, ‘Our snowfields are melting at 4,000 feet and, actually, we tried to get Australia to ratify the Kyoto protocol.’ Bang, bang!—two knockout punches there. That country will get crossed off the list. They will not support the opposition’s position on climate change or the global financial crisis, so we will cross them off the list. The hesitators, the imitators and the terminators—that is all they have over there.

Scientists agree that carbon pollution is causing the world’s climate to change. This change is resulting in more extreme weather events, higher temperatures, more droughts and rising sea levels. In Darwin, there used to be an average of one category 5 cyclone every 1,000 years. Three categories 5 cyclones have come through our area in the last 10 years, so there certainly has been a change in extreme weather events. We saw what happened with the bushfires in Victoria in early February this year—another extreme weather event. These events all have significant consequences for people in my electorate.

Scientific research tells us the Top End is likely to become hotter and wetter and the Centre hotter and drier. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones or storm surges are likely to increase. Rises in temperatures could lead to the loss of 80 per cent of freshwater wetlands in Kakadu. Rising sea levels, increased frequency of tropical cyclones and extreme weather events are likely to significantly impact on biodiversity, critical habitats, tourism and food and cultural values important to traditional landowners. Science suggests that uncontrolled climate change could see real threats to coastal housing and infrastructure, with tropical diseases becoming more common, particularly amongst the elderly, and more people suffering from heat related illnesses and death. That is why everyone needs to do their bit to tackle carbon pollution.

Australia is one of the hottest and driest continents on earth. Our environment and economy will be one of the hardest and fastest hit by climate change if we do not act now. Leadership from the developed world encourages other countries to join the global fight. That is such an important point. It has to come from the developed world. The First World needs to lead the way for the developing world to make sure that we address climate change. Only yesterday the Minister for Climate Change and Water travelled to Spain for three days of ministerial talks on climate change. Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen highlighted the meeting as an opportunity to kick-start the last remaining week of formal United Nations negotiations prior to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. With Copenhagen only weeks away, these meetings are an important opportunity to make progress on key issues central to achieving consensus. Australia is actively participating and has put forward a framework proposal. By enacting this legislation, Australia will be a part of the solution and not part of the problem. We will actually be in the room and not sitting outside—we will be in the biscuit tin, unlike the parrot sitting on the outside.

The world will come together to attempt to reach a new global agreement on climate change later this year. Australia must go to Copenhagen from a position of strength, with strong targets we know we can deliver through the CPRS. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will help us tackle climate change, to ensure our kids and future generations are not left to clean up the mess. We have a responsibility to the Australian people to act on climate change. The business community, environmental groups and the Australian people expect the parliament to do the right thing and pass the CPRS this year.

The passage of the CPRS will provide business certainty. The Australian government has a responsibility to ensure that our Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is tailored to our national interest. The Australian Industry Group, Shell Australia and a range of other businesses are calling for certainty on the CPRS so they can plan investments. Russell Caplan, chairman of Shell Australia, said, as quoted in the Business Review Weekly on 6 August 2009:

… we believe a far greater risk is that Australia misses the opportunity to put a policy framework in place to deal with this issue. This would create a climate of continuing uncertainty for industry and potentially delay the massive investments that are required …

Heather Ridout, CEO of Ai Group, said on Sky News on 5 May 2009:

Business also needs to be making very big decisions if we are going to be able to make the transition and to do that they need certainty. Uncertainty is death for business.

It is in our national interest to pass the legislation this year, not wait around as some of those opposite suggested today and yesterday. Tackling the problem will not be easy—we know that—and there will be costs, but the longer we wait to act the higher those costs will be.

I know that the opposition have put amendments forward and I am glad we are negotiating with them. In the 12 long years of the Howard government, not once did they look to take on proposals by the opposition; not once did they talk to the Labor Party. They negotiated with the minor parties, but they did not once come to the table with us. This is an important issue. It cannot afford to wait any longer. After 12 long years it is time to act, so I suggest that the opposition act in the best interests of the Australian public and the planet rather than in the best interests of the Leader of the Opposition. I commend the bill to the House

See this speech in context