Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I uphold Dr Jensen’s right to say what he thinks on this issue. I applaud him for having the courage of his convictions and saying what he thinks on this matter. It is a great pity that those in the Labor Party who have concerns about the extent to which human activity is causing climate change are not able to express those views for fear of being expelled from the party.

As far as the government are concerned, the government’s position is well known. We led the world on this issue. We were the first government in the Western world to set up a dedicated greenhouse office, dedicated to mitigation. It is the government’s view that the government should, within reason, do everything they possibly can to mitigate the extent of greenhouse gas emissions by this economy without unduly damaging Australian industry or the living standards of Australians. We have committed about $3.4 billion to comprehensive greenhouse gas abatement programs which are in place. We have committed to a carbon emissions trading scheme, but we will implement it in such a way as to not unduly damage the Australian economy. The support for our policy came from none other than the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who visited Australia last week, to indicate that the Australian government were perfectly correct in not rushing into setting an emissions reduction target, that this was a very complex area and that a country like ours had to do the detailed economic analysis to determine the proper reduction target, unlike the Labor Party which has gone into this without undertaking any economic analysis whatsoever. It has plucked out of the air a 60 per cent reduction target, without knowing how on earth it will achieve that target and without having any idea at all of what impact it will have on the Australian economy. We are grateful for the support from the IPCC for our policy. It is a responsible policy to ensure that Australia plays its part in the global effort to contain greenhouse gas emissions.