Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have come in on the end of the debate on the matter of public importance. I think the member for Boothby himself is in an absolute state of denial about the government’s record on this most serious challenge facing our nation and the globe. On this issue his government has no coherent strategy and, as with many other issues, its response is predominantly poll driven. Let me remind members on the other side of the chamber about the degree of scepticism that exists on the government benches. I will quote the words of the industry minister. He is on record not long ago as saying:

... carbon dioxide levels go up and down, and global warming comes and goes.

No wonder, with that attitude, that he admitted on the Sunday program with Laurie Oakes:

... Well I am a sceptic of the connection between emissions and climate change.

You heard it from a very senior government minister. It is no wonder that the Leader of the Opposition described your Prime Minister the other day as a ‘rolled-gold climate change denier’. Of course the polls are now reflecting a very strong sentiment in the Australian community, and it is no wonder that the sceptics have now reformed themselves into so-called global warming realists. It was the same industry minister who dismissed Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth as ‘just entertainment’. Talk about burying your head in the sand and ignoring all the warnings from eminent Australian and overseas scientists.

The actual inconvenient truth for the Howard government is that the Australian community understood the significance of dangerous climate change and its negative consequences long before government members and the Prime Minister saw the light on their road to Damascus. You can correlate the conversion of those who described themselves as sceptics who now say they are realists on this issue to nothing more than the pressure of public opinion. We are now going to see a huge advertising campaign spending taxpayer funds. But I know that taxpayers will not be hoodwinked on this issue. They will see through the lack of action on this critical and important global issue under the stewardship of this government over the last decade.

It was quite pathetic over the last week to hear the responses of the Prime Minister to the questions we were asking about this advertising campaign. His responses were bizarre. He obfuscated, he misled and he was deliberately evasive, playing semantic games in answer to legitimate questions being asked in the House. His responses were, ‘As a government, we have not approved the advertising campaign.’ In another quote he said, ‘No minister has approved materials for distribution.’ In another quote he said, ‘No TV campaign has commenced.’ Yet at the same time officials from the department at the Senate estimates hearings were telling us about the degree of preparation that had gone into this campaign, preparation that included market testing of the Prime Minister’s letter to households. This is unbelievable: to think that you have to market test a letter to households because households know that what is being said is in direct contradiction of the views of the sceptics on the government benches. Late last year the industry minister also proclaimed, ‘Taxes and targets do not deliver greenhouse gas savings, technology does.’

Technology has an important role to play, but it is not going to achieve outcomes without some form of emissions trading and targets. We have even had the latter-day conversion of the Prime Minister. He is now warming to the idea of a national emissions trading scheme—even though that scheme was junked by cabinet when the Treasurer and others proposed it not too long ago. The Prime Minister is now warming to the idea of at least having to set long-term targets. The Australian population will not be fooled. They know that this is another attempt to try to salvage the government’s chances, in the election due very shortly, with a massive advertising campaign. After 11 long years of inaction, an expensive campaign costing tens of millions of dollars will not salvage the government’s appalling record. A government full of climate change sceptics cannot find climate change solutions.

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am a proud believer in climate change and I am confident that most of my constituents in La Trobe share my opinion. Many constituents have written to me about the risk that climate change poses to the environment, and I will continue to work to make their voices heard in the federal parliament. On both sides of politics, as in the community, there are climate change sceptics. I invite them to watch Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, which mounts a compelling case that climate change is real. If anyone doubts the film’s science, they should know that last year the Age newspaper asked seven prominent scientists, including five from the CSIRO, to mark An Inconvenient Truth’s scientific merit. The film averaged above 4½ out of five, which is a ringing endorsement of the accuracy of the film’s scientific message.

As regards the Kyoto protocol, I am not opposed to ratifying it; but it simply does not go far enough. Australia is already on track to meet the Kyoto emission targets, and we should be doing much more. To have any impact at all, we must involve the world’s largest emitters like the United States, China and India. Whatever form the ‘new Kyoto’ may take, we have to ensure that there is not a carbon trading scheme that would allow Third World countries to flatten their forests so that big emitters can keep on emitting. That is why Indonesia is the focus of the government’s $200 million global reforestation initiative and why some of that money will be spent upgrading Australia’s satellite surveillance of Indonesia’s forests.

In the meantime, I am delighted that for 2007-08 the Australian government has committed $2.8 billion to address climate change with some very exciting measures that exceed our Kyoto requirements. For instance, the Australian government is planning the world’s biggest solar power station to be built in north-western Victoria. This will provide power for up to 45,000 homes and reduce emissions by up to 400,000 tonnes per annum. I am also excited about the potential for geosequestration—injecting carbon dioxide deep underground. In March this year I met two CSIRO scientists, Alison Henning and Michael Borgas, who gave me some insight into Australia’s first geosequestration trials in the Otways in south-western Victoria. It has great potential and I am thrilled that it has Australian government support.

I am also a big supporter of solar and other renewable energies, and I congratulate the residents of La Trobe who have let me know how important it is to them to use these alternative measures as part of the overall energy mix. I have tried to vigorously represent these views in Canberra and therefore I am delighted that the 2007-08 budget will provide an additional $150 million to encourage homeowners and community organisations to install solar panels. The current household rebate will be doubled to $8,000, about 50 per cent of a typical solar power system. This is double the amount of funding that Labor is proposing. Grants of up to $12,000 will be available for solar panels in schools and community buildings. For all its rhetoric in support of solar energy, the fact is that, if elected, Labor will only provide a $4,000 household rebate for solar. That is not nearly good enough.

I believe that Australia should also strive to be a world leader in emissions trading. Emissions trading requires emitters to hold permits that can be bought and sold and which provide the right to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases. This will ensure that industry uses the market to discover the cheapest ways of reducing emissions. I believe that such a system should be the centrepiece of any long-term strategy to deal with climate change and I look forward to the Prime Minister’s emissions trading task force report, and I also support a strong target.

Finally, I believe that we should all be doing more as individuals to reduce our carbon footprints. I recently visited the Szencorp Building at 40 Albert Road, South Melbourne, which is a unique building designed to demonstrate world-leading environmental practice. This has inspired me, and now I believe that every MP’s and senator’s office in Australia should be carbon neutral. I have engaged Szencorp to conduct a carbon audit of my office and have put a proposal to Minister Turnbull to institute such a system nationwide. To this end, my electorate office’s printing is carbon neutral. I use a printer brand which is accredited by the Australian Greenhouse Office’s Greenhouse Friendly program. This is a voluntary scheme that allows Australian businesses to market greenhouse neutral products and services, to reduce emissions and to give Australian consumers greater choice. I think it is a fantastic initiative. In closing, I reiterate that I am a strong believer in climate change. Although I am pleased that the Australian government is tackling the problem head on, I am determined to ensure that the voices of my residents of La Trobe are heard in this national debate.