Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

So they're taking ownership of it—I'll take the interjection—including the aluminium smelter at Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley, not far from the member's electorate. And now, through our investment in Kurri Kurri, we are re-establishing an industrial site at exactly the place where they took the jobs out.

The member for Shortland goes further than that. One day, before I was about to give an interview on ABC regional radio, they were interviewing the member for Shortland. He was asked whether the Labor policy was a carbon tax. He said it was 'an implicit carbon tax', a sneaky carbon tax—and we know, one way or another, that that is the policy he supports. In fact, the president of the CFMEU's New South Wales energy and northern mining division said of the member for Shortland that 'he's running around the countryside supporting the Greens view of life'. Hear, hear! I don't often agree with the CFMEU, but I sure do agree with them on this one.

The latest IPCC report confirms the need for global action. Meeting these challenges is a shared responsibility, and we are playing our part. We met, and beat, our 2020 targets. We did that at the same time as we were building the largest LNG export sector in the world. We are reducing emissions in Asia. We accept the fact that that makes it harder for us. Indeed, as the member for Shortland pointed out, when Labor left government, their forecast of our emissions for last year were over 100 million tonnes higher than we actually achieved. Conveniently, he completely ignored the role of small-scale solar.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

I'll take that interjection. He needs to really understand the sector before he makes these sorts of interjections. But what do we hear from those opposite on this issue? A failure to acknowledge Australia's achievements. They'll talk Australia down at every opportunity they get. They haven't had much to say about the vandalism we saw this morning—defacing iconic public buildings. That is not the way to do it; technology is the pathway to reducing emissions. They have no 2030 target, they have no plan, and there is nothing but deafening silence on these critical issues from those opposite. They come in here and talk about jobs. Meanwhile, they have voted against the expansion of ARENA for the Technology Investment Roadmap—$80 billion of combined public and private sector investment and 160,000 jobs. For the Labor Party, there are only their preferred ways to bring down emissions. It's ideological. When it comes to the practical questions of bringing emissions down, they will pick the ways they prefer.

Fortunately, the member for Shortland has already stolen my thunder with Australia's extraordinary performance on reduction of emissions; he acknowledges that we've reduced emissions by 20 per cent since 2005 and that our achievements include reducing emissions by 100 million tonnes lower than those opposite forecast. He failed to acknowledge, though, that that is a performance that beats Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Japan and the OECD. In the electricity sector in particular, in the NEM, we've seen very sharp reductions, including 5.6 per cent in the last year alone.

Ms Butler interjecting—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

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