David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. Will the minister outline the government’s commitment to responsible economic management through taking responsibility for tackling the challenge of climate change?

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lindsay for his question. Responsible economic management and a resolute commitment to tackling climate change go hand in hand. They are the necessary foundations for building a sustainable Australia, economically and environmentally. And that commitment to responsible economic management is underwritten by Labor’s $3.3 billion in the federal budget climate change program commitment. This is an unprecedented investment in meeting the greatest social, economic and environmental challenge we face.

We know the investment is unprecedented because it compares with a commitment of $2.8 billion in the last coalition budget. In fact, that figure of $2.8 billion contained in last year’s environment budget overview was the coalition’s claimed total spending on climate change since 1996 and projected out as far as 2020. The Rudd Labor government has already committed more to meeting the challenge of climate change in our first budget than the last government did in their entire 12 years in office and projected over another 12.

And it is not just about headline figures; the government has a strategic approach to ensuring Australia reduces its greenhouse gas emissions at the least cost cost. At the centrepiece is an emissions-trading scheme—ruled out by the previous leader of the Liberal Party in his term here as Prime Minister. This will be a most substantial reform—to use the market to drive a least-cost approach to delivering Australia’s emission reduction targets in the future. It will be complemented by a range of measures addressing non-price barriers and, importantly, reducing the overall cost of tackling climate change. We are committed to a 20 per cent renewable energy target to help Australian households and communities tackle climate change. We are investing $1 billion, including $300 million for low-interest green loans, $150 million for energy-saving insulation in rental homes and $480 million to make every school a solar school.

As sea levels rise we understand the fundamental point that the risks and associated costs of neglect of climate change are greater than the cost of action. The Rudd Labor government’s budget is the first down payment on tackling this great challenge. It is an investment that is economically responsible both in the immediate term and with a view to secure a sustainable Australia in the future.

Where is the opposition going on this critical issue? We should not forget that the Liberal Party has form on climate change—12 years of climate change denial, 11th hour makeovers as the election came on and people got concerned about climate change, and suddenly wasteful and expensive climate-clever green wash, but it just did not stick. The Australian public was not fooled by this.

As the headlines and the reports continue to pour in, with more evidence of the impact climate change will have on our coastline, our farming communities and our way of life, we look in vain for the Liberal Party to take climate change seriously. Yet the opposition leader’s budget reply, all 3,500 words of it, mentioned climate change just once, and even then it was the familiar Liberal Party scaremongering—all about the perils and costs of acting and nothing about the truly perilous consequences and missed economic opportunities if we do not act.

The Leader of the Opposition said, ‘We’ll be back to you on a carbon price,’ and that has been his contribution in the House on climate change. But this is not a time for scaremongering; it is a time for rising to the challenge of sound economic management which recognises the critical importance of ensuring that Australians have a sustainable future. And that is exactly what this government is delivering—$3.3 billion on climate change for the Australian people.