Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for the Environment and Heritage explained to us what China was doing to deal with its greenhouse gas emissions and made the argument, if I understand him correctly, that Australia’s robust addressing of reducing greenhouse gas emissions needs to be seen in the light of the fact that China—a country much bigger than ours—actually produces more. I notice that the minister for the environment did not mention that China has a very significant mandatory renewable energy target, and it is true, as he said, that they are investing significantly in clean coal. But the final point that the minister for the environment did not make is that China is doing more than Australia.

Interestingly, the electorate of Kingsford Smith, which I represent, includes the University of New South Wales, and that is where Dr Zhengrong Shi completed his PhD in solar energy. His technology was clever and the future looked bright. After all, he was living in a country which receives more radiated solar energy than most other countries. But Dr Shi, unable to get support for his company in Australia, ended up taking his business to China. He is now China’s third- or fourth-richest man. He is not a climate change sceptic; nor is Dr David Mills, as the member for Calare identified in his question. Dr Mills is a world leader in solar research who, after 30 years of research and development in Australia, has to take parts of his company offshore to California because Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger—‘Arnie’—has vowed to cut greenhouse emissions by a massive 80 per cent over the next 45 years. Arnie Schwarzenegger is not a climate change sceptic. As Dr Mills said—

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