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

We started this session in the parliament with questions to the government about climate change. There were questions to the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources about whether he would increase the renewable energy target. Those questions were never answered. There were questions to the Prime Minister about whether he understood the consequences of climate change, and he allowed in those answers that perhaps a four- to six-degree increase in temperature might mean that things would be a little bit uncomfortable. We have the best possible evidence on climate change, and the Prime Minister and this government do not get it. Today, the Prime Minister answered the last question in the session before we go to a winter recess by speaking about industrial relations. He did not address the subject of the question at all.

That is the summary of the Howard government’s approach on climate change. We started the session by asking them questions that they could not answer and we end the session by asking the Prime Minister a question which he completely failed to answer. Anybody sitting in their homes or in their cars, worrying about the impact of climate change on their communities, on their coastline or on their farmlands, will now have heard clearly—for once and for all—that when it comes to the dangerous threats posed by climate change to this country, the Prime Minister just does not get it. In 11 years we have had denial, delay and scepticism. We have had occasional grudging acceptance, but mainly we have had inaction. And the great tragedy of the Howard government’s inaction is that it leaves us poorly equipped to deal with the challenges that climate change represents—critically by staying out of Kyoto and by delaying all efforts to allow the market economy to do its work. Australian business has been let down, the Australian community has been let down, and the only way that that will change is for a leader like Kevin Rudd—who understands climate change, commits to addressing climate change and recognises the great moral, economic and environmental challenge that climate change poses for us—to be able to effect policies in this House.

More than two years ago, I talked with the then Sydney Futures Exchange—now part of the ASX—about their strong desire for a national carbon trading scheme and the need for such a scheme. That was after nine years of failure to act by this government. Remember, the Sydney Futures Exchange had taken major steps to establish itself as a regional hub for emissions trading. Not unreasonably, it saw the inevitability of emissions trading in Australia and then waited for government action—and it waited, and it waited, and it waited. While the community waits and while the business community waits, what is the government’s response? Let’s examine it. For those who call for profound action on climate change, there is abuse, ridicule and denigration. For those who believe that it is important to support Kyoto, there is abuse and denigration of the protocol process.

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