Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the government, I thank the honourable member for her question. Her position is very well-established, and the crossbench have been very strong in their views. In this government, we set our targets following a very rigorous process, which is outlined by the Climate Change Act, which, to be fair, members on the crossbench voted for. The Climate Change Act outlines world's best practice for setting a target: the government receives advice from the Climate Change Authority, considers it, considers the economic impact, considers the science, considers how that target might be achieved and then announces the target. The UK are taking a very similar approach.

The target the government sets will be two things. It will be, importantly, achievable. I say to honourable members, as I've said elsewhere, it's very important that a target be able to be achieved. It is not a useful contribution to the debate to set a target without outlining how the country can actually achieve that target. Yes, ambition is very important, but so is achievability. Both those measures will be reflected in the target that the government announces, following the receipt of the Climate Change Authority advice, which we have not yet received. We will follow the rigorous process outlined in the Climate Change Act.

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