Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is a bit unfair, Mr Deputy Speaker Causley; he should be given an opportunity. On a day like today we get an opportunity to debate the issues. We have a senior journalist in Melbourne—you can say whatever you like about Andrew Bolt but he does his homework. And he has done his homework on Al Gore’s movie and he has come up with 10 points that really should be discussed. I do not have time in my 10 minutes to go through them all, but people should have a reasoned look at them.

Recently, Minister Ian Campbell outlined what Australia has done on global warming. Broadly, the government has accepted that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. The government has pumped $32 million into further global climate change research in an effort to inform good policy decisions and reasoned measures. We know that our scientists are among the world’s best and are making a major contribution to this work. Regarding international policy, however, Australia is punching well above its weight. We are co-chairing the United Nations talks on future climate change action as well as being a leading member of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. I inform the House that the Minister for the Environment and Heritage is flying to Zurich this evening as a member of a select number of countries that have been invited to participate in the G8 dialogue on climate change, clean energy and sustainable development.

Australia is delivering real results on climate change. We are one of only four industrialised countries on track to meet its targets by 2010. We will stop 85 million tonnes of greenhouse gases going into the air. That is the equivalent of taking 14 million cars, trucks and buses off our roads. I disagree with the member for Kingsford Smith because the facts are that Australia is not a major contributor to global greenhouse emissions. Individually, with a small population and coal based energy source, you say we are high output. We contribute 1.4 per cent of global emissions.

Our expertise and constructive approach to addressing the challenges of climate change is internationally recognised. We know that combating greenhouse effects is one of the big challenges we have in the future, so we are investing more than $1 billion to develop climate friendly energy technologies across a spectrum. These include solar, with the announcement last week of the very first solar city trial going ahead in Adelaide. In my part of the world the Howard government has announced a clean coal pilot plant in the Latrobe Valley. That is all positive. On Monday this week I was involved in a community roundtable—I wish you had been there—on wind farms. That included local government, wind energy industry people, planning industry people, community groups and non-government organisations. Representatives began working towards a national code for wind energy installations.

Wind farms have been a controversial issue in my electorate of McMillan and I take this opportunity to inform the House that despite what some Victorian state government ministers are saying I am not anti wind farm, I am not anti renewables. I fully support the Howard government’s investment in alternative energy technologies but I back the need for local government planning jurisdictions so that people in my local communities, particularly Bald Hills and Foster North, get a fair go. Local governments should have a say and it should not be withdrawn and taken back to state government to do whatever they like with that beautiful pristine area of Gippsland. People like to have a say about what goes on in their backyard. All politics is local. I also support the right technology-wrong place argument and emphasise my passion to protect critically endangered wildlife and the sensitive coastal regions of Gippsland.

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