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

That is the language that was used: ‘an entertainment’. The IPCC examination, the most extensive examination by the scientific community of the likely impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on our planet and on the climate in terms of warming, was dismissed—it meant nothing.

There has been talk about symbolism and substance. The opportunity to provide substance comes when the Treasurer has to get up and present a budget. But in all but one of the past Treasurer’s budgets, climate change was never mentioned. When former environment ministers went to international fora to talk about climate change, they dared not say the word ‘Kyoto’. That was symbolism over substance. When we look at the task that the nation has to put us on an even and sure footing so that we can manage the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time build a sustainable economy, we see that the former government went missing in action. The cry from business leaders, trade unions, communities, farmers and schools right around Australia was: ‘Will someone wake up this government to do something about climate change?’ On election day that is what Australians did. As well as being a clear expression of the will of the Australian people about the Work Choices legislation, the election in 2007 was a clear expression of the will of the people about the importance of taking a nationally strong position on climate change—something the Liberal Party and the former Howard government never did.

Let me conclude by saying that it is our intention to drive a clean energy revolutionary with policies such as the establishment of a $500 million renewable energy fund, an energy innovation fund and the national clean coal initiative. We want to help Australian families green their homes with policies like green loans, a one-stop green shop and rebates for energy-efficient rental homes. We want to bring cleaner transport through with measures like the green car innovation fund and the green car challenge. They are matters of substance. They are the policy matters that we should be debating in this House, but instead the member for Flinders comes in here and attempts to skate over a past which cannot be ignored or escaped from and throws some flamboyant and erratic language around in an attempt to marshal a debate.

We have reached the stage in our national life where we need seriousness on this issue, not frivolity. We need to take the issues that we are debating right up to one another. I absolutely welcome that. We need to go out to communities and provide them with opportunities, as we have done for the people of Coober Pedy. They will have the opportunity to have the largest solar power station in Australia—erected in remote Australia. The people in Coober Pedy and others in remote Australia who may be listening know that they have issues. They are reliant on diesel, but they have a lot of sunlight—and we have the technology and the expertise. For 11 years this issue stayed in the too-hard basket for the previous government. The Rudd Labor government is fully committed to climate change solutions and matters of substance that mean a lot to the Australian people.

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