Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Crossin for her question and her interest in both renewable energy and the government’s action on climate change. This is a government which is committed to acting on climate change and putting in place incentives for investment in clean energy, renewable energy and the clean technologies which will deliver the transformation our economy needs. This government will bring forward our renewable energy target legislation, which will deliver a fourfold increase in Australia’s renewable energy sector by 2020, to ensure that the equivalent of all of Australia’s household energy will come from renewable sources by that time. This will unleash investment in the renewable energy sector, something which should have happened a long time ago. Of course, this is on top of the government’s unprecedented commitment in the budget with the $1.4 billion Solar Flagships program and additional investment in the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy and our investment in Solar Homes and Communities, all of which demonstrate this government’s commitment to the reform of our energy sector and strong and sustainable support for renewables.

But the fact is that, even with all of these measures in place, Australia’s emissions would still rise to around 20 per cent higher in 2020 than they were in 2000, as opposed to being up to 20 per cent lower if the Senate is minded to pass the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The reality is that without the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme this country will not hold its contribution to climate change, without the scheme we will keep making climate change worse and without the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme we have no means to deliver our targets, which are ambitious, necessary and in the national interest. (Time expired)