Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Here we are on the first day of parliament for this year and one thing has never been clearer than after question time today: the best days of the Howard government are behind it. Anybody watching question time today would have seen that clearly on display. These are the days of uncertainty and drift in the Howard government; these are the days when the challenges for the next 10 years that this nation needs to grasp and deal with are being ignored. Those challenges are clear. We need now to be building the next wave of economic prosperity in this country. That is what is going to matter for the next 10 years, and that is why the Leader of the Opposition has been talking about the need for an education revolution and of making the Australian people the most highly skilled in our region so that we can compete with the world. These are the days where for the next 10 years we finally have to resolve the blame game in this country. We need to stop the waste, the buck-passing and the cost shifting that happen when the states and the federal government fight. That is why the Leader of the Opposition has been taking the lead on ending the blame game, including in the vital area of water.

The challenge for the next 10 years includes getting our major cities right, dealing with the need for infrastructure development, dealing with problems of congestion and livability. The people of our cities know that these needs are pressing, and we have to get the shape of our cities right for the next 10 years. We have to deal with the question of climate change. And we have to get the balance for Australian families right and the balance in our workplaces right. We need to restore the balance so that there is fairness between employers and employees, but we also have to get the balance right for working families between the time and energy spent at work and the time and energy spent with their families.

It is to these two issues—the issue of climate change and the issue of the balance for Australian families—that I particularly want to direct my remarks. Climate change and the unfairness of the Howard government’s conduct in relation to working Australians were the themes of question time today, and these are the issues that I want to direct my remarks to, because no two issues more clearly show the days of uncertainty and drift for the Howard government and more clearly demonstrate that its best days are behind it.

Let us come to the issue of climate change, with the new Minister for the Environment and Water Resources at the table: the man who, with much flourish, took on the challenges of the environment and water for the Howard government. At the end of question time today, the new minister had three problems. He had a problem with sea water, he had a problem with sceptics and, at the end of question time today, he had a problem with being taken seriously—and that is the most difficult question of all for him to resolve.

On his problem with sea water, he claims to have been misrepresented. But let me read precisely what he said on radio on 3 February. It is here. We know he was phoning a friend before, but let me clarify for him, in case there is any doubt, exactly what he said. He said:

There’s a lot of very exaggerated claims and you have to bear in mind that most of our coastal population lives on the east coast of Australia and because of the geology or the [topography] of the east coast, you know, much of that is adequately elevated to deal with a one-metre sea rise.

The minister at the table thinks that the ocean is like a giant indoor swimming pool and that, as long as there is a metre difference between the edge of the pool and where the water is, it does not matter if the water comes up a metre. I am no geologist—I would find it difficult to tell a diamond from a piece of granite—but let me tell you this: the ocean is not a dirty great swimming pool with a hard edge; the coast erodes. So, when the water goes up, you get erosion. And that is why a metre increase in sea levels, for anybody with a modicum of common sense, is a very big problem for our coastal cities, not the least of which is Sydney. Just because your house is a metre above where the sea is now does not mean you would be safe, Minister. Just have a little think about it. Get a scientist down from the CSIRO, and they will be able to explain it to you better than I can—but, really, anybody ought to be able to work that out.

And then the minister has a problem with sceptics. He is trying to rebadge the word ‘sceptic’ because he knows that the Howard government is full of climate change sceptics, so now he is pretending that the word ‘sceptic’ in that context means someone who thinks and questions. But we all know that, in the climate change debate, a climate change sceptic is actually someone who says that there is no global warming. They are deniers. They are people who believe that the current things that we are seeing are just a result of natural weather patterns. If you are a climate change sceptic and you believe it is just the weather then you are a do-nothing person, because nothing can be done about the weather. That is what a climate change sceptic is—someone who does not want to do anything—and that is what your government is full of. Redefining the word ‘sceptic’ is not going to fix that problem for you. You have a problem with sea water and a problem with sceptics.

You went on to say, ‘Sceptics are people who question dogma.’ The problem for you is that, with your government full of climate change sceptics, you are actually the people with the worst dogma, because you are the people who say, ‘The only way of dealing with all of this is to have nuclear energy.’ The Prime Minister was at the dispatch box today saying, ‘It’s the greenest and cleanest and safest,’ and all the rest of it. Has anybody ever heard of solar waste? Has anybody ever heard of wind power waste? How is it that nuclear energy is cleaner and greener and safer than solar energy or wind power energy? It is just absurd. The worst pieces of dogma come from the Howard government.

You have a problem, Minister, with sea water, sceptics and being taken seriously. The parliament, including your own side, was laughing at you today. The Treasurer was laughing at you. The Leader of the House was trying to get you to sit down.

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