Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013. We are here today to discuss the Abbott government's continued attack on science and on the Public Service. We are here today to witness the continuation of the Abbott government's tactic of destroying agencies whose expertise does not match with the ideology of the new government. We are here today, yet again, to be dismayed by the Abbott government's continued attack on openness and transparency. And we are here today because those on the government benches do not wish for frank and fearless advice from the Public Service, just hollow echoes of their own thought bubbles. This is a disappointing development in Australian politics, and it is not in the interests of the nation.

This attempt to destroy the Climate Change Authority comes on top of the government's closure of the Climate Commission and AusAID, the abolition of the science portfolio, the loss of hundreds of jobs from CSIRO and the earlier attempt to destroy the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. While in this place we often disagree on policy, never have we disagreed upon the need for public debate to be informed by expert advice—that is, never before the election of this current Liberal-Nationals government. We may disagree on whose expert advice is best, but never before has a government in this country sought to destroy agencies simply because their expert advice is not to the liking of the government's blinkered, narrow-minded belief system. That is what we are witnessing today. The Liberal-Nationals government is seeking to destroy the Climate Change Authority because it does not like the advice it provides and it does not want any government authority at all to be able to measure how well or—more likely—how poorly its Direct Action policy is or is not working.

The Climate Change Authority, in a measured and sensible manner, provides expert knowledge about action to counter climate change both in Australia and internationally, the efficacy of those actions and the adequacy of those actions. The Climate Change Authority completed its first review of the Renewable Energy Target in December 2012, recommending keeping the renewable energy target at 41,000 gigawatt hours. The Climate Change Authority has commenced work on the first review of Australia's emissions reduction goals. The targets and progress review will recommend short-, medium- and long-term emission reduction goals and assess Australia's progress towards its medium- and long-term emissions reduction targets.

In its targets and progress review report to the government, due to be released in February 2014, the authority will review Australia's progress towards its medium- and long-term emissions reduction targets; recommend a 2020 emissions reduction target; recommend a national carbon budget and indicative national emissions trajectory; discuss how Australia might meet its trajectory, budget and target, including how different sectors of the economy could contribute and the role of international emissions reductions; and, as required by legislation, recommend caps on emissions under the carbon-pricing mechanism. In framing its recommendations, the authority draws upon existing and new analysis of a wide range of issues, including the accumulating body of science and underpinning concerns about climate change; the extent and nature of ongoing international arrangements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; how any global efforts to reduce emissions might be shared among nations; and the economic and social implications for Australia of different targets for reducing emissions.

The Liberal-Nationals government do not want to hear the outcome of this report because they know it will say things that their members in the 'climate change is crap' brigade do not want to hear. They do not want to discuss how Australia might meet its trajectory, budget and target because they have no intention to meet any of these.

Even in the draft report, which is publicly available on the climate change agency's website—and I am sure the Liberal-National government will try to hide or expunge it as they tried to expunge the Gonski report—there are a number of points they do not like because these points expose how dishonest they have been when debating climate change science and climate change economics. The draft report highlights that significant action is being taken on climate change by the international community. China has pilot emissions trading schemes planned for seven provinces and cities. The first began in 2013 and there are plans to design a national emissions trading scheme—that is right: China, the world's most populous nation, a Communist nation, is adopting a market based emissions trading scheme while the Australian Liberal-National government, the Abbott-Truss government, is introducing Marxist-style direct government intervention into the economy.

On this issue the Chinese Communist government are acting more liberal than the Australian Liberal Party itself. To put it another way: on this issue the action by the Australian Liberal Party is more Marxist than the actions of the Chinese Communist government are. I am surprised that Minister Abetz can keep from choking when trying to explain this direct action policy. China has renewable energy targets, feed-in tariff support for solar, wind and biomass power, a policy of closure of inefficient small- and medium-sized coal plants and industrial facilities, appliance and building standards, an energy efficiency target, industrial energy efficiency retrofits and vehicle fuel efficiency standards.

The United States of America has subnational emissions trading schemes in California and nine north-eastern states, subnational renewable energy targets, financial incentives supporting renewable energy, proposed national regulations limiting emissions from fossil fuel power plants, appliance and building standards, industrial energy efficiency assessments, vehicle fuel efficiency standards and vehicle emissions standards. The European Union has an emissions trading scheme amongst its 28 member states and Norway, a renewable energy target and support for cogeneration, feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, appliance and building standards, an energy efficiency target, vehicle emissions standards and renewable fuel production incentives.

India has a coal tax, an energy efficiency trading scheme for the power sector, renewable energy targets, vehicle fuel efficiency standards and vehicle emissions standards pending. Japan, Canada, South Korea, South Africa and New Zealand have taken substantive action to tackle climate change. There ends the furphy that no other nations are doing anything about climate change.

When you combine all those countries you can see that substantive action is being taken by countries representing an overwhelming majority of the world's population and carbon dioxide output. You can see why the government do not want an agency that explicitly collates and releases that data, because it is not in the Liberal-National government's interest for that information to be widely distributed amongst the Australian population. Mr Abbott and his friends are happy for there to be a widespread belief that there has been no international action on climate change. Indeed, they have dishonestly pushed that view strongly over the last six years. The Abbott-Truss government is not going to like the Climate Change Authority's targets and progress review report because it will recommend a higher target than five per cent on 2000 levels. That can be clearly seen in the draft report which is already released. The draft report says:

The Authority presents two options:

The Authority will recommend a single 2020 target and a single 2030 trajectory range in its Final Report.

Either of these recommendations the Abbott-Truss government will find extremely embarrassing. That is because Tony Abbott has recently confirmed that his government has abandoned its longstanding policy to reduce Australia's emissions by between five and 25 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020, a crucial and internationally scrutinised goal that had retained bipartisan support since 2009, despite significant international action, as I outlined. It is no real surprise to see Tony Abbott walking away from his early support for Australia's commitment—