Teresa Gambaro (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak about the coalition’s international leadership and its practical, sensible and balanced approach to the global challenge of climate change. The Sydney declaration on 9 September heralded a new era in global cooperation addressing the challenge of climate change. The Sydney declaration by 21 APEC leaders is a more substantial achievement than the Kyoto protocol. The Sydney declaration is a great achievement because, for the first time, it includes key developing countries who are the major carbon emitters. It included China, Indonesia, Korea, and Malaysia.

The Kyoto protocol does not require commitments from developing nations who are the major carbon emitters, therefore the Kyoto protocol cannot deliver the level of global reductions that we all need. APEC leaders agreed to work towards achieving an APEC-wide regional goal of reduction in energy intensity of at least 25 per cent by 2030. The Sydney declaration strikes a very careful balance between the need for economic growth, energy security, social development and action on climate change. It recognises that all countries have a responsibility to tackle climate change.

The coalition government is climate clever. The Australian government has already committed some $3.5 billion to tackle climate change—that includes support for solar energy, clean coal technology, hot rock technology and wind power. We are also developing a world-class national emissions trading system to further drive investment in low emission technologies. The Australian government is working with industry, top scientists and the community.

I want to contrast the government’s sensible approach with Labor’s ideological strategy. Labor’s environmental policy is just like the rest of Labor’s policies, if indeed those policies can be found. Labor is about spin, not substance. Labor is about sound bytes, not substance. Labor is about symbolism, not substance. Labor is about stunts, not substance. Labor is about stunts on climate change, but that is Labor for you.

While pretending to care for working families, Labor is hell-bent on pursuing irrational carbon emissions targets, without any reference to the huge emissions of developing nations. This will result in nothing more than job losses in Australia and huge costs to working families for everyday items such as bread and milk. Even Labor’s environment spokesman, the member for Kingsford Smith, has given up on Labor’s environment policies. In fact, the member for Kingsford Smith does not believe in Labor’s environment policy—for vastly different reasons than those of members on this side, I am quite sure. Why else would he be crafting a new tax policy to provide more welfare benefits for unemployed artists if not because he has been all but stripped of his shadow environment portfolio?

Australia does not need the cheap stunts and phoney policies offered by the opposition. Labor offers no leadership and no vision for the future. The people in my electorate of Petrie need real leadership on climate change—real leadership that only the coalition can provide. So far we have given much environmental funding for community water grants for places like the Holy Spirit Nursing Home. We have cleaned up Moreton Bay and Cabbage Tree Creek and we have provided environmental funding for the Mountains to Mangroves corridor at McDowall and the Chermside Hills.

These are practical help measures for the environment, not empty gestures. On 23 August, Northside Christian College, at Everton Park, received a $50,000 Green Voucher from the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. The government has committed $336 million to the Green Voucher program, which will see all Australian primary and secondary schools receive funding of up to $50,000 to install rainwater tanks and hot water systems. This is a very practical initiative. It encourages educational awareness about wise energy use. Even the schoolchildren in my electorate have a deeper practical understanding of addressing climate change than does the opposition. That says it all!