Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister inform the House of how the government is tackling climate change and why decisive action is needed now?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Corio for his question. Climate change, for the government and for the nation, represents core economic business and core environmental business. That is why we as the government have embarked upon a comprehensive set of measures to deal with this challenge. These measures go to what we do in terms of international diplomacy. They go to the question of what we do in our domestic arrangements for the future development of an emissions trading scheme. They go to the question of what we do on the future of mandatory renewable energy targets. They go to how we harmonise such mandatory renewable energy targets across the states and territories to create a unified system for the country. They go to mitigation measures including, for example, $130 million which the minister for primary industries has already announced for use by primary producers to assist in their mitigation measures on farm and on property. And they go to a range of other measures which can be embraced by individuals and families—for example, the solar rebate programs which will be unfolded by the government during this year.

It is this sort of multifaceted approach which is necessary to deal with the overall challenge of climate change. All this is made possible in terms of Australia’s international diplomacy by the fact that, within the first 11 minutes of the existence of this government, we proceeded to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Within the first 11 days of this government’s existence, we handed the instrument of ratification to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, at a UN climate change conference in Bali. And within that framework we have, through the agency of the minister newly appointed for climate change, embarked upon a range of negotiations with our partner governments around the world—within the framework, for the first time, of the Kyoto protocol—to ensure that we have an effective Bali road map ahead, which goes from this conference at Bali through the Warsaw conference which will be held later this year, through to its destination point, which will be the Copenhagen conference at the end of next year.

These are difficult and challenging negotiations, but negotiations of which we could not be fully part were we not ratification members of the climate change convention. As a result, we the government, through the agency of the Minister for Climate Change and Water, are expending every energy possible to ensure that those negotiations can come to a successful conclusion. This would not have been possible had the previous government been returned to office. This would not have been possible because that government had embarked upon a series of measures and statements the end point of which was to refuse, after 11 years, to ratify the Kyoto protocol. It took us 11 minutes to ratify Kyoto and 11 days to present the instrument of ratification—after 11½ years that that government had still refused to ratify.

The program of work we have before us of course goes beyond international diplomacy. It goes also to the targets we set for this nation for the future, and those must be compatible with what we agree on globally as well. Therefore, the work that has been commissioned by the Treasury in terms of the independent Garnaut report—one which we began by commissioning independently, from opposition, in the middle of last year—will be important. When that report comes down it will be one of the sources of advice, together with what the Treasury says and what we also have from the Department of Climate Change and elsewhere, in shaping our overall framework for the delivery of an effective emissions trading scheme for the country.

Beyond that, a core challenge which the minister is wrestling with is also how we evolve an effective mandatory renewable energy target regime for the country, given the conflicting state regimes which exist. These are important items of work for the nation. They are of core relevance to the business community and to the general community. They are of fundamental relevance to whether we have in place in this country a set of measures which underpin long-term economic growth. But Australia is now back in the circle. We are back in the negotiating ring fully—not half-heartedly—as demonstrated by the response to us as the new government of Australia by the international community when we presented our instrument of ratification in Bali in December.

This will be serious, difficult and challenging work ahead, but we are prepared to exert every element of the government’s energy to bring these negotiations to a successful conclusion. I commend the work done thus far by the Minister for Climate Change and Water. This is a very difficult task that she has before her, but this is fundamental economic and environmental business for the nation. It is one of the core priorities for this government. It is one of the core priorities upon which this government was elected, and it is a government determined, as in other spheres, to honour the pre-election commitments it gave to the Australian people.