Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (Senator Abetz) to questions without notice asked today.

Today a number of questions were asked of Senator Abetz which sought to draw the government on what it was doing in relation to climate change, and quite frankly the answers again reinforced the message that the government does not understand climate change, has no plan for tackling it and is being dragged reluctantly by the community to confront the issues of climate change. For 11 years the government did nothing in the face of those challenges and it is only in recent times, when the community proved that they were way out in front of the government, when the community concerns were so strong and so loud, that the Prime Minister finally agreed to establish a task force to look at the question of climate change and propositions for a carbon emissions trading system.

We heard from the minister today that the government have no idea about what is going on in terms of the climate change challenge. We know they have not ratified Kyoto. We know they stand outside the international community. We know they have let the MRET run down to the point of making no practical contribution to renewable energy in this country. We know that solar research has been cut by the government to the point that the major leading solar research technologies that were developed in this country have been forced overseas and that Australia’s leading scientists in solar matters are now working overseas due to the lack of funding and lack of interest by this government in solar energy. We have the situation now where Germany leads the field on solar research. Australia has dropped back and our resources in this area have been cut back dramatically, and a country that once led the world in solar research effort is now very much following. There are many good scientists still left in this country, but the funding is not there to provide the leadership in that area that we should be providing.

The government just do not get it on climate change. It is a reflection, I think, of the lack of leadership, the failure to come to terms with modern issues, the failure to come to terms with the future challenges that Australia faces. Because the government just do not get it, they cannot come to terms with leading the Australian community in tackling climate change. To be fair, there is a fundamental problem inside the government—they do not believe that climate change is caused by human activity. The Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Minchin, Senator Abetz himself, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Mr Macfarlane, actually do not believe that the science about climate change is right—they are climate sceptics. I think Senator Bernardi and others are of the same view. The Liberal Party is full of people who do not accept the science. That is fine, but it makes them totally incapable of leading the response Australia needs to make to climate change.

My view, and I think the view of most Australians, is that the evidence is in, the science is now widely accepted in the world that human activity is making a huge impact on climate, that we cannot go on emitting carbon at the rates we are and that we need to respond. But if you do not believe it, you cannot respond; you cannot provide the leadership necessary. So I accept that the government have a fundamental problem. They do not believe it; therefore they are totally hamstrung in terms of responding. So the Prime Minister had to be dragged into doing something, as Crosby Textor kept reinforcing to him that Australians understand the problem and accept the science and that something needs to be done. But the government have failed to act in a way that would provide the leadership in tackling climate change.

One of the things that struck me when I took on the shadow ministerial responsibilities for resources and energy late last year is that business gets it. Business absolutely gets it. Business wants the certainty of knowing what is going to happen in terms of climate change in this country. It wants the certainty of knowing whether it is going to have a carbon emissions trading system. It wants a price on carbon. It wants to know that we are going to seriously tackle climate change, because it is affecting it very fundamentally. Business cannot make huge investment decisions in Australia until it knows what the price of carbon is, what targets the Australian government has set and what commitment there is to renewable energy in this country. It is crying out for leadership from the Australian government and it is not getting it. Business will get it from Labor because we will set targets, sign up to Kyoto and establish an MRET scheme. (Time expired)