Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Will the minister update the House on the role technology will play in the Morrison government's plan to secure Australia's energy future? How will this help keep our economy strong? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. He, like all of us on this side of the House, is focused on reducing emissions whilst maintaining a strong economy. We are absolutely focused on meeting and beating our targets. We have strong targets, we have a clear plan and we have an enviable track record. We expect to beat our Kyoto 2020 targets by 411 million tonnes. To put that in perspective, that's almost a year's worth of emissions we'll beat our 2020 targets by. We have strong 2030 targets that imply a reduction of emissions per capita by 50 per cent. Already we've laid out in our plans how we're going to meet and beat those 2030 targets. Central to that is the $3½ billion Climate Solutions Fund and state deals like the New South Wales deal I just talked about.

The pathway to meaningful emissions reduction both before 2030 and beyond is the development and deployment of commercial technologies which strengthen the economy and don't weaken it, which reduce emissions whilst creating jobs. That's why last year at COAG, just before Christmas, we announced, alongside all state and territory governments, our National Hydrogen Strategy. Soon afterwards we committed over $500 million to that strategy. That includes projects like the Latrobe Valley Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain, in itself a $500 million project. We've committed $50 million to get that export supply chain in place for the future not just to reduce emissions in Australia but to reduce emissions around the world. We'll shortly release our technology investment road map, because our focus is on technology, not taxes.

There is an alternative, which is to tax Australians more. We have a real world example of what happens when you try to tax Australians more. It was the carbon tax those opposite had in place before they lost government. I have here a document, which is the projections from 2012 of what Labor—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left might notice that their leader is seeking the call. The Leader of the Opposition, I'm taking, has risen on a serious point of order.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Absolutely. You won't be surprised that we want to check the validity of the document, and we ask that it be tabled.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You can ask that it be tabled at the end of the answer, not midway through an answer.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We don't know whether we can speak on relevance and whether it's real or not.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well I know what the standing orders say, and they're real. You well know you can ask for a document to be tabled only at the end of question time.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It lays out Labor's plan for their carbon tax. What they forecast back in 2012 was that, by 2020, emissions in Australia would be 637 million tonnes—100 million tonnes higher than they are today—with a carbon tax. (Time expired)

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would ask the minister to either table or let us know the web address of the document that he referred to.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you want him to table it or not?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Absolutely.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the minister quoting from a confidential document?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, it's their document.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the minister.