Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

It would be the first time he has been encouraged today, and not the first time he has interjected. In terms of the G8-plus meeting, not only did I cochair the meeting of the ministers but I also met afterwards with Sir Nicholas Stern and with Sir David King. What did they want to talk to me about? Two key issues. The first one was how we were proceeding with the public-private partnerships, the public-private partnerships that will ensure the development of low-emission technology. He recognised, even though the Labor Party pretends it does not exist, the important role that industry will play in solving the low-emissions technology challenge. He recognised that Australia will in fact lead the world in public-private partnerships. The Minister for Trade and Industry, Malcolm Wicks, said to me, ‘That Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund is a great idea; we’re thinking about that.’ We are already doing it. We are already rolling out a $500 million fund. We are already investing with industry in the solutions to greenhouse. We are already seeing the $250 million that the taxpayers have invested in lowering emissions being not matched by industry, not matched twice over by industry, but matched five times over by industry. While the Labor Party tries to claim, in their pretence, that we are not doing anything, we are seeing industry and government combined in $1.5 billion worth of projects to lower greenhouse gas emissions. And that is just the start, as we move forward on this challenge.

I heard the Leader of the Opposition beginning to give this House a lecture on drought. He may be a knowledgeable man but, until I see some evidence that he knows anything about drought, I can assume his comments today were simply aimed at pulling at the heartstrings of farmers who are experiencing an extraordinary circumstance. Can I say to those farmers: don’t be misled. Don’t be betrayed by this man—signing Kyoto will not break the drought; signing Kyoto will not lower emissions by more than half a per cent. Most of the countries that are signatories to Kyoto will not reach their targets.

An interesting point comes from that. Let us have a look at the countries that will reach their targets. Let us have a look at countries that have more than one per cent of the world’s emissions and that are judged as meeting their Kyoto targets: Russia, Poland, France and the United Kingdom. What do those countries have in common? They will all be nuclear electricity generators. There is one other country on that list: Australia. We are here today having a debate about low emissions, the need for technology and the need to lower our global emissions, and the Labor Party’s last pretence is that nuclear power is not part of the solution. They sit there and say, ‘It doesn’t matter what everyone else in the world is doing; we don’t want to do that.’ That is just after the member for Grayndler and the Leader of the Opposition have said, ‘Whatever the Europeans tell us to do, we have to do, but don’t talk about nuclear.’ The member for Batman talks honestly—

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