Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

If you had not increased your carbon footprint by flying to Sydney and back overnight for some film, you would be aware that we have indicated that we are going to move a private member’s bill, hopefully within a matter of weeks. We will be introducing it as a separate bill into this place and hoping to get the support of the Senate. If we had not got that deal, and Senator Milne knows this, we could have been like a dog in a manger—not get out of it and then block the whole legislation. Is that what the Australian Greens wanted—that, for the sake of that section, we block the legislation and not let it go forward? I do not think so. That is why we had a balancing act. We can see the benefits of supporting this legislation going through, albeit that it has major faults, such as in the emerging technologies and food manufacturing. In relation to the emerging sector, we will be moving our private member’s bill.

In relation to the so-called ‘big emitters’, I remind the Senate yet again that Australia’s ‘big emitters’ are in fact some of the cleanest manufacturers in the world. I have got a funny feeling that even today we might hear about the closure of an energy intensive plant somewhere in this country, partially because of the projected introduction of a carbon pollution reduction scheme. People’s jobs will be lost. Senator Fielding, by the way, is right here—renewable energy is more expensive than the way we do energy at the moment. But the way we do energy at the moment has certain environmental consequences, and we are trying to wean ourselves off that type of energy. That is why the Howard government introduced renewable energy targets. We have always said it should be staged, systematic and done in a way that does not mug the economy along the road of transition. That is why we started with a modest target today. Hopefully, we will be voting for an increased target but, if we increase the target too quickly, we will make the energy intensive industries less competitive on the world market. That will mean the closure of our manufacturers in this country. But guess what? The world demand for cement, aluminium and zinc will still be there, and, if we are not making it in Australia, it will be made in China or Russia or India or Brazil or Indonesia or Vietnam.

Now tell me this: for a tonne of zinc produced in any of those countries, what are the CO2 emissions in comparison to a tonne of zinc produced in Australia today? In China, it is threefold—six tonnes of CO2 per tonne of zinc produced compared to only two tonnes of CO2 in Australia. So, by us pricing our manufacturing sector out of world markets through increased power prices, we will in fact see higher pollution levels throughout the world. That is the consequence of the dogmatic, ideological attitude of the Australian Greens when it comes to these matters.

I indicate on behalf of the coalition our support for Senator Boswell and commend him for his long advocacy in this area. I think Senator Fielding’s comments to the father of the Senate and his party were inappropriate, because Senator Boswell has been an excellent advocate in this area for many, many years.