Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Minchin, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Is the minister aware that four government MPs have today stated in the dissenting report of a parliamentary inquiry into geosequestration that they do not believe that human activity is contributing to global warming? Don’t the four MPs claim:

Most of the public statements—

by political leaders—

that promote the dangerous human warming scare are made from a position of ignorance.

Don’t these MPs, led by the member for Tangney, cite as evidence for their scepticism that warming has been observed on the planets Pluto and Neptune? Does the minister support this analysis, given his public scepticism about climate change? Isn’t the government’s refusal to acknowledge the science of climate change the reason why it has done nothing to combat climate change during 11 years in office?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My experience on this very significant and complex matter is that there is a range of views about climate change, the degree of climate change and the causes of climate change right throughout the community. That is true of our party and I assert, without fear of contradiction, that it is the position in the Labor Party because I know that to be true. The difference in the Liberal Party is that we are not an authoritarian party. We allow Liberals to express their views, we allow Liberals to say what they really think, unlike the Labor Party. And we know who the sceptics are in the Labor Party but they are all, understandably, not prepared to express their views for fear of being crushed by this authoritarian Labor machine which does not allow freedom of expression upon fear of being expelled from the party.

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There is too much noise in the chamber. I would ask senators on both sides of the chamber to come to order.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I uphold Dr Jensen’s right to say what he thinks on this issue. I applaud him for having the courage of his convictions and saying what he thinks on this matter. It is a great pity that those in the Labor Party who have concerns about the extent to which human activity is causing climate change are not able to express those views for fear of being expelled from the party.

As far as the government are concerned, the government’s position is well known. We led the world on this issue. We were the first government in the Western world to set up a dedicated greenhouse office, dedicated to mitigation. It is the government’s view that the government should, within reason, do everything they possibly can to mitigate the extent of greenhouse gas emissions by this economy without unduly damaging Australian industry or the living standards of Australians. We have committed about $3.4 billion to comprehensive greenhouse gas abatement programs which are in place. We have committed to a carbon emissions trading scheme, but we will implement it in such a way as to not unduly damage the Australian economy. The support for our policy came from none other than the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who visited Australia last week, to indicate that the Australian government were perfectly correct in not rushing into setting an emissions reduction target, that this was a very complex area and that a country like ours had to do the detailed economic analysis to determine the proper reduction target, unlike the Labor Party which has gone into this without undertaking any economic analysis whatsoever. It has plucked out of the air a 60 per cent reduction target, without knowing how on earth it will achieve that target and without having any idea at all of what impact it will have on the Australian economy. We are grateful for the support from the IPCC for our policy. It is a responsible policy to ensure that Australia plays its part in the global effort to contain greenhouse gas emissions.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Aren’t the views of these free-thinking Liberal MPs indicative of the Howard government’s refusal to accept the real scientific evidence of climate change? Isn’t the government only paying lip-service to a rising public opinion while refusing to seriously tackle climate change?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It really is a very silly question. I do not know how many times we have to elicit the enormous investment we have made in greenhouse gas reduction and the enormous investment we have made in renewable energy and assisting those industries. I had the pleasure of launching Geodynamics’ first commercial well in this country to prove up geothermal power—something I am personally very excited about and think will be great for the state of South Australia, which I am proud to represent in this place. So we take the issue seriously, but we are not prepared to abandon thousands of jobs and industry in this country in the name of chasing Green preferences.