Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for her answer because it is clear looking at this that the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will not have a positive budgetary impact out to 2020, so any money that is paid into a global fund must come out of the budget somewhere. That is why it is important that Australians have a commitment that the money will be paid and that Australia is not going to go to Copenhagen with a miserly position, having allocated so much compensation to the coal-fired generators—with no justification whatsoever—and argue that there is no money, because the scheme does not generate any additional funds, to put an appropriate share into an international fund for the adaptation, mitigation and assistance that is required.

So I think it is important that we at least we get from you, Minister, a commitment to the kind of quantum. As you are aware, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and others have put on the table their view. Looking at the formula that I have referred to previously, they think that Australia’s fair share ought to be in the vicinity of $4 billion per annum. I think there has to be some awareness of what it means when you design a scheme that is so economically inefficient that there is no money left over from it to meet your quite right, just and fair international obligations to shoulder your fair share. If the rest of the world determines that the adequacy of the target on offer has a direct relationship to what our fair share is—so, the lower the target, the higher the financial contribution—we need to know what Australia’s position is. There is real concern that the failure of developed countries to put an adequate amount of money on the table will be a deal breaker in Copenhagen.

I would just like to know from the minister whether she thinks the quantum that has been put on the table by the EU, Britain and Japan for fast start-up is in the ballpark. Does Australia think that is the kind of quantum we need on the table for the fast start-up? And what is the ballpark quantum for us out to 2020? I also want a commitment that the government is going to meet it, because I know what could happen here. It could become crunch time because of the global financial crisis and the amount of money that has to be found because of what we expended in the short-term. With this scheme having been so generous to the polluters, it could well end up that there is no money on the table for developing countries.

I want to know how Australia is going to finance it and, secondly, that it is going to finance it. If it is not then we will not have a global treaty. That is why it is critical that we get this amendment up—so that in the objects clause there is a clear understanding that, when you have a carbon pollution reduction scheme to reduce emissions, it ought to be efficiently designed in order to generate sufficient funds to invest in such a scheme. If it is going to be publicly funded outside the scheme, we need a commitment to that and to the order of magnitude. Otherwise, I am fearful Australia will not front up with its appropriate level of burden share.