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

I thank Senator Adams for asking such an incredibly important question. We know that the world in the postindustrial era has pumped about a trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We know that has happened over the last 150 years. We know that, on a business as usual basis with no change to how we produce and use energy, we will double that in about 50 years. We know that the consequence, based on a consensus of the best scientists around the world focusing on that, is that there will be global warming. This has been in the order of 0.6 to 0.7 of a degree in the last 100 years. We know that there would be double the rate of warming at the poles. We know that has the potential to increase sea levels, particularly if there is a melting of the Greenland icecap. That could be catastrophic for ecosystems and for places like the Barrier Reef and the coastal regions of Western Australia, in Senator Adams’s home state. We know that could be catastrophic for the global economy and for mankind.

We know that, as a globe, we need to take this seriously. We need an effective international agreement on greenhouse gas reductions. We also need to take action domestically in Australia. One of the great contributions that Australia can make to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions around the world is to export our liquefied natural gas, much of which comes from the state of Western Australia off the Kimberley coast and, in the future, off the Pilbara coast. We know that that industry can deliver greenhouse gas reductions of 25 million tonnes a year because, when you replace coal-fired or oil-burning power stations with beautifully clean Western Australian gas, you get a 40, 50, 60 or even 70 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It is a transformational way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and it also produces 80,000 jobs in Australia and a $10 billion export industry.

There is a risk to this industry. The risk is from the Australian Labor Party in the guise of Dr Carmen Lawrence, a senior member of the Rudd Labor team, and their comrades in the Greens, who yesterday lodged an emergency heritage listing application for the Burrup Peninsula which, if it is successful, will stop the Pluto project, the biggest gas export project in Australia. I wrote to Mr Rudd, the new leader of the Labor Party, yesterday to bring this to his attention and to ask him to call in Dr Lawrence if he is serious about development in Australia, as he said he was in the Financial Review this morning. He said:

I think it’s the last big frontier of micro-economic reform.

He went on to say:

You talk to the business community. They pull their hair out about the way in which commonwealth and states fail to properly work together when it comes to their regulatory environment for getting business and development projects going.

This is the biggest project in Australia. The Premier of Western Australia and I have agreed on a process and now a member of his team wants to put a spanner in the spokes. If Mr Rudd wants to be leader, and if he is serious about Commonwealth and state cooperation on projects, the first thing he should do is call Dr Lawrence in and tell her to withdraw this frivolous and stupid application to close down the biggest project in Australia.