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

I thank the member for Wakefield for his question. The impact of climate change, with increasing temperatures over time, on drought and on our water supplies is real. It underlines why comprehensive action to tackle climate change is a priority for the Rudd Labor government. The Liberal Party, with its palpable lack of direction, consistency and conviction, shows how ill-equipped it is to deal with these issues day by day. Barely nine months into the life of the government we have given Australia a seat at the global negotiating table, with the ratification of Kyoto. We have committed to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 60 per cent of the 2000 levels. We have set out the government’s preferred design for the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. We are committed to ensuring that at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply comes from renewable energy by 2020 and we are committed to a substantial forward agenda on cost-effective energy efficiency improvements as a key plank of our response to reducing Australia’s carbon pollution at least cost.

I have to say that this comes at a time when we have had 11 of the 13 hottest years on record, evaporation rates in the Murray-Darling Basin are at a very, very high level and, regrettably, inflows are very low. That is a real agenda, they are significant commitments, they are real targets and they form part of a strategic approach to tackling climate change—an approach that is economically responsible, environmentally effective and based on science. Perhaps the best way to understand this approach after nine months is to compare it to the previous government’s record over 12 years: 12 years of denying the climate change science and 12 years of ignoring the evidence. And that is not the full story.

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