House debates

Thursday, 13 September 2007

Questions without Notice

Climate Change

2:32 pm

Photo of Luke HartsuykerLuke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is addressed to Australia’s greatest Treasurer. Would the Treasurer inform the House about practical steps the government is taking to address the issue of climate change while keeping our economy strong?

Photo of Peter CostelloPeter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Cowper, Australia’s greatest member for Cowper. I understand he is under attack from another trade union official at the next election.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting

Photo of David HawkerDavid Hawker (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! The level of interjections is far too high.

Photo of Peter CostelloPeter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

It is a fair bet, if you are asked who your local Labor candidate is, that it is a union official. I think there is about a 70 per cent chance that it is a union official. I will chance my arm here and say there is a union official running for Labor in Cowper. Is that right?

Government Members:

Government members—Yes.

Photo of Peter CostelloPeter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

Surprise, surprise! One of the measures which the government has just introduced to this parliament is a very practical measure to respond to the challenge of climate change and to ensure that we have appropriate incentives, particularly through our tax system, to respond to those issues which will reduce carbon emissions and also contribute to the greening of our country and improve our environment. Australia has a wonderful but fragile environment. We are one of the hottest and driest continents on earth. As a result of that we all have an interest in forestation. We all have an interest in encouraging the plantation industry in a way which will deal with those issues and deal with carbon emissions.

This morning the government introduced legislation into parliament which will allow a full tax deduction to carbon sink forest operators for the cost of establishing trees in a qualifying carbon sink forest. This is full deductability. Those people who are planting in a recognised qualifying carbon sink forest will be able to deduct the full cost of that and expense it in full. As a consequence of that, we believe that there will be many operators who will take the opportunity to plant trees, including planting trees in agricultural areas, where farmers will be able to make land available, maybe even in between crops, and get a payment for their land, which will be matched by the tax deduction of those that are planting the qualifying trees.

This is a kick-start for carbon sink forests. It is intended by the government that this will apply until 2012-13, when the immediate deduction will be replaced with a write-off under the general horticultural plant provisions. To qualify for this tax deductability, operators will have to comply with environmental and natural resource management guidelines.

This is a practical response to the issue of climate change. This is an important measure which will be consistent with a growing economy. This will put in place an opportunity for investors to do their bit. These are the kinds of initiatives which are important to front up to the future challenges of climate change and the environment, and this is the government that is putting them into place.

2:36 pm

Photo of Kevin RuddKevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer to Labor’s comprehensive plan to tackle climate change, which includes ratifying the Kyoto protocol—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting

Photo of David HawkerDavid Hawker (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! Members on my right!

Photo of Kevin RuddKevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

cutting Australian greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 and substantially increasing—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting

Photo of David HawkerDavid Hawker (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! Members on my right! The Leader of the Opposition has the call and he will begin his question again.

Photo of Kevin RuddKevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to Labor’s comprehensive plan to tackle climate change, which includes ratifying the Kyoto protocol—

Photo of Greg HuntGreg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | | Hansard source

Is this the one you outlined to George Bush?

Photo of David HawkerDavid Hawker (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for Flinders is warned!

Photo of Kevin RuddKevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

cutting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 and substantially increasing the mandatory renewable energy target. Prime Minister, after 11 long years, does this $23 million taxpayer funded picture book which is about to be sent out to the electors of this country equal the totality of the Prime Minister’s plan to tackle climate change?

Photo of John HowardJohn Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition has asked me a question about a policy that he says is the great moral challenge of the age, but he almost forgot to mention it when he saw the most powerful man in the world in Sydney last week. He totally forgot to mention it. It is a measure of the leader’s moral fervour on these matters that it is not on the agenda for such an important meeting.

I say in reply to the Leader of the Opposition that we are very proud of the balanced approach we have to climate change. We believe in tackling climate change without undermining the strength of the Australian economy. With respect to the Sydney declaration—and I know the Leader of the Opposition was rather disappointed—

Photo of Peter GarrettPeter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Garrett interjecting

Photo of John HowardJohn Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

that it was achieved last week—for the first time it united the United States, China and Russia, the three greatest emitters in the world, in a commitment to an aspirational target for a reduction in greenhouse gases. It does represent a new international consensus on climate change. If the world can agree on a common emissions goal, with all countries contributing, reflecting their own capacities, then indeed there is some hope for a balanced approach.

I remind the Leader of the Opposition, with his references to 11½ years, of the $2 billion to $3 billion that the government has committed to various measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I remind him that the emissions trading system to which the government is committed is a world’s best in terms of an emissions trading system. It has more comprehensive coverage. It covers some 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions—

Photo of Peter GarrettPeter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage) Share this | | Hansard source

The non-existent trading system!

Photo of David HawkerDavid Hawker (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for Kingsford Smith is warned!

Photo of John HowardJohn Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

which is vastly higher than the European and other models long championed by the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Kingsford Smith. So I would say in reply to the Leader of the Opposition that I do not regard his plan as comprehensive. He is so ashamed of it or lacks fervour and commitment to it that he does not mention it when he meets the President of the United States. It is such a moral crusade for the Leader of the Opposition that he did not mention it in the most important meeting he had last week. It is a measure of the way in which the performance of the Leader of the Opposition in these matters falls a long way short of his rhetoric. I think the government’s approach to climate change, which balances the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the overwhelming need to preserve the strength of the Australian economy, is the approach that is right for Australia’s future and an approach that the great majority of Australians will support.