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

As the Prime Minister noted, the Leader of the Opposition also spoke on this in an earlier interview with Laurie Oakes, and on Lateline on 9 July he said:

… the Howard Government’s policy last year, was that we would establish an emissions trading system not later than 2012. It was not conditional on international action.

He went on to say:

… John Howard decided and the Cabinet decided last year that we would move on an emissions trading scheme come what may.

That was the Howard government’s policy, and that was the opposition’s policy last year—moving on an emissions trading scheme ‘come what may’. What has happened is that we have had a phalanx of climate change deniers, we have had the member for Higgins suddenly speaking up and now the opposition leader has said this morning:

I would not support finalising the design this year.

The reason he has given is:

Even the best designed scheme in theory needs to have the input of the knowledge of what happens at Copenhagen and what the Americans will do.

So we have gone from ‘not conditional on international action’ and doing it ‘come what may’, with an ETS as the ‘essential mechanism’, to absolute delay. What has happened in the intervening period? We know what has happened. When he was environment minister the Leader of the Opposition was campaigning for an emissions trading scheme; now he is campaigning for his own position as leader and he is against emissions trading. The Leader of the Opposition is not waiting to see what America does on emissions trading; he is waiting to see what the member for Higgins actually says.

Regrettably on a matter as serious as this, the only job that is being protected by the Leader of the Opposition is his own. Those future jobs that Australians will get from taking decent and prudent action on climate change will now be delayed. Only sceptics believe that delaying action on climate change is good for jobs, because they do not believe that climate change actually poses a risk to jobs. But the Rudd government understands that failure to deliver the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will result in jobs being lost in tourism, agriculture and food production as a result of climate change impacts. The opposition leader’s retreat on climate change puts at risk the future of our environment, economy and jobs. This government will continue to prudently and purposefully take responsible action on climate change because Australians expect nothing less.

See this speech in context