Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Roberts. You and I have different approaches to this, don't we, because your fundamental proposition is that you don't think this is necessary at all, and the government certainly does. The government accepts the science, the government accepts that the globe must reduce emissions and, as part of that, we accept that it's a collective exercise. It's not something that can be done exclusively by one country; it's something that may only be achieved through all of the countries of the world collaborating together. You are right that different countries have different degrees of ambition. But as a responsible participant in the global community and as a government that accepts the science, we consider that our obligation is to work with the other nations of the world to build the necessary ambition to contain greenhouse gas emissions and hence to stop dangerous climate change.

I can run you through some of the targets that have been adopted by countries that we would ordinarily consider our peers, countries that we often compare ourselves to. As you know, our target is a 43 per cent reduction against a 2005 baseline by 2030. Canada has a target which is 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 by 2030, reasonably similar. Germany has a domestic target which is 65 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030. Japan has a domestic target of 46 per cent below 2013 by 2030. New Zealand's target is 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. The United Kingdom's target is 60 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030. The United States of America's target is 50 to 52 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Senator Canavan, you're right that not all countries—my apologies, Senator Canavan, I was listening to your interjections and I mistakenly named you. Senator Roberts, you're right that a range of countries have targets that are lower than ours. Some of them have targets that are more ambitious than ours. We have set a target that we believe Australia can achieve, and we do that because we know that it's absolutely essential that the world acts on this.

We've received stark warnings in recent weeks from the world's scientist, and they tell us that this is the critical decade for the kids. We have a chance to do something serious to contribute to the global effort to tackle climate change, and we intend do so. The Australian people voted for that, and we know, too, that there are opportunities here—opportunities for many of the communities that you seek to represent, opportunities for communities that I seek to represent, rural and regional communities around the country, especially in my home state of New South Wales. There are job opportunities here, opportunities for businesses, and there are threats too if we don't act because our trading partners increasingly expect us to act and investors expect businesses to act. Senator Roberts, we think this is an important reform, and I recognise that the foundation of our decision is one that you don't agree with. You don't accept the climate science and, therefore, logically, you don't think we need to do anything. We simply don't agree with that, and I would put it to you that neither does the Australian public.