John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It will not work unless you have everybody in. According to that definition, to which the member for Grayndler assented, Kyoto is not an international emissions-trading system, because everybody is not in Kyoto. In particular, the countries responsible for half the world’s emissions are not part of Kyoto.

I was interested in the reaction of those who sit opposite when I said we needed a new Kyoto. Let me say that again: we do need a new Kyoto, because the old Kyoto has failed. The old Kyoto has been a failure because the old Kyoto did not have India and it did not have China. It had India and China as sort of nominal members, but they were—what do you call it in the jargon?—annex 2 countries. Or was it annex 1? In other words, they were signatories but they were not obligated. Therein lay, you might say, the investment death trap for Australia. If we had signed up to the failed Kyoto, what would have happened was that we would have assumed obligations. The member for Batman knows this, because the member for Batman still cares about the working men and women of Australia and he does not want their job opportunities destroyed. That is why we did not sign the old Kyoto.

We would be part of a new Kyoto if the new Kyoto embraced all of the countries of the world, put us all on a proper footing and, very particularly, included all of the world’s great emitters. If that were to happen, you could seriously talk about an emissions trading system; but, until you get that, it is manifestly against the interests of this nation to sign up to the current Kyoto because, if there is no change, all that will do is result in the export of jobs from this nation to other countries, where the obligations imposed are less than the obligations imposed on Australia.

If we are to have a sensible debate about this issue—and I assume that that is what those who sit opposite want—then we must acknowledge that the goal is to get a framework where everybody is involved in an international emissions trading system. We are prepared to be part of the international negotiations needed to bring that about, but our precondition is that everybody is in. We are not signing something that obligates Australia and does not obligate other countries, particularly given the natural advantage that providence has given us in relation to fossil fuels. What a fool this country would be to itself, having been given this enormous natural advantage, if we were to take a disproportionate share and burden and, in effect, say to the world, ‘We know that if we assume these obligations they will hobble our efficient export industries and they will not affect yours.’ I am not going to do that and nor is any member of this government. But what we are going to do is very enthusiastically be part of an endeavour to find, if you like, a new Kyoto that embraces everybody and has an effective international emissions trading system. If everybody is in that, we can actually make a bit of progress.

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