Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House about budget initiatives on climate change through international reforestation, forest management and other projects?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Bonner for his thoughtful question. I noticed in the opposition’s responses to the budget that one of the constant refrains of the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer, the member for Lilley, is that in the budget the government is doing nothing about climate change, which simply demonstrates that the opposition is not reading the budget but just using a bit of focus group work and parroting a few lines. The truth is that there is a lot in this budget that the government is doing to address the issue of climate change, importantly including in the Asia-Pacific region, because our aid program has a particular responsibility and a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

One of the issues that needs to be addressed is the environment and, rather more specifically, climate change is a significant issue. In Pacific island countries there is nervousness about the possibility of rising sea levels. That is an issue that we are addressing. For example, we are spending money on the Pacific meteorological services to help predict climate in the Pacific, including extreme weather events such as cyclones, which have a devastating effect on small island countries. We are spending money on the South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project. This supports 12 different monitoring sites that use GPS and satellite to monitor sea level movements and the impact of those sea level movements on small island states.

If the opposition is serious about the issue of climate change, it would have something to say about these issues. It would understand what the government is doing and it would talk about those things and, I would have thought, endorse what the government was doing. We are doing other things, like helping with a global environment facility to improve land use and introduce better farming practices—for example, the planting of drought-resistant crops. This is an important issue for people who live in, for example, parts of Indonesia, where there is concern that climate change may lead to drier conditions and therefore the need to change the sorts of crops that they plant. The most important single thing the government is doing to address the issue of climate change internationally in this budget is the $200 million that we are investing in the Global Initiative on Forests and Climate. So, every time the opposition says the government is doing nothing about climate change, it rather conveniently and opportunistically ignores the importance of this great initiative.

This global initiative on reforestation and stopping the process of deforestation has been enormously well received around the world. It does not matter where you go; in developed countries and developing countries there has been very real interest in this initiative—and why not? Deforestation in developing countries accounts for 20 per cent of global CO emissions. Halving deforestation would offset emissions by several billion tonnes a year. The simple fact is that, although it was announced before the budget, in this budget, funding is now being made available to address those issues.

As the year wears on there will be initiatives such as the APEC summit. The Prime Minister has already written to APEC leaders about the environment and climate change being a central issue at the APEC meeting. Of course more will be done, but the fact is that, when the Leader of the Opposition gets up tonight to make his budget reply, one of his themes will be climate change. I would expect that in articulating that theme he will begin by congratulating the government on the many initiatives in the budget designed to address climate change.

I note that the narrative of the Labor Party is that the government does not do anything about climate change. When we do, they continue with the same narrative and endeavour to convince the public that, for example, $200 million is not being spent on reforestation in the Asia-Pacific region. It is about time the Labor Party started to use the facts as part of their armoury, not just empty socialist narratives.