Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I think Senator Ian Macdonald asked: does that mean we are going ahead with the amending bill in its current form? The answer to that is yes. Senator Milne asked a series of questions that I believe I have already answered in relation to the greenhouse trigger. She asked what has changed since what former Senator Hill—then environment minister and now ambassador—did in 1999-2000 in relation to the action of a trigger. I have gone into some extraordinary detail to explain how Australia has one of the most thorough—and Kyoto compliant—greenhouse gas accounting systems, which is one of the reasons we are able to report accurately to the world, down to a very fine grain, what our greenhouse gas emissions were in the latest accounting period, which for the latest report I think will be 2005. We are also able to give a very accurate prediction as to what they will be during the conclusion of the first commitment period out of Kyoto, and that is 2008-12. We have indicated in all of our reports up to date that we are on track to meet our Kyoto target and that in fact we will be one of the few countries in the world that will meet their Kyoto target or are on track to do so. As soon as it is ready, we will make our latest report.

I would like to answer Senator Milne’s question with another question. Let us say you know what the greenhouse gas emissions are from the Anvil Hill coalmine and from the burning of that coal by third parties who may import that coal from Australia or use it domestically. Let us say you know what those greenhouse gas emissions are because they are required to be assessed, as Justice Pain has said to the developers of that coalmine. As I have said quite accurately, if you put this trigger into the law today it would require every facility and mine and industrial activity across Australia above the trigger, including Anvil Hill mine, to be assessed. What would Senator Milne do faced with the information, knowing what the greenhouse gas emissions would be from the coal mined at Anvil Hill? That is the nub of the question. That is the nub of the policy issue. When you have made this assessment and you know how much greenhouse gas will be emitted, what would you do with that assessment? Would you approve that mine or not?