Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I notice honourable members from Queensland seem to be interjecting that they do not want to see the Great Barrier Reef protected. Is that right? They do not want to see Kakadu protected. They do not want to see action to protect the Murray-Darling. The government take these challenges seriously, which is why we must act nationally and internationally on climate change. That is why our Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme proposes to reduce carbon pollution by five per cent by 2020, unconditionally; to reduce carbon pollution by 15 per cent by 2020, if there is an agreement where major developing economies commit to substantially restrained emissions and advanced economies take on commitments comparable to Australia’s; and to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution by 25 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, if the world agrees to an ambitious global deal to stabilise levels of CO2 equivalent to 450 parts per million.

That is the government’s strategy, that is what we have embraced and that is what we intend to get on with doing. That lies at the heart of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. This is necessary also to provide business certainty. At a time when the global economy is under such stress and the national economy is also under stress our business community needs certainty, which is why, for example, Andrew Peterson from PWC said last week:

The certainty of the signals being provided over the last few months has now dropped away. The momentum is lost for business and that is a concern just as we are seeing international activity speed up.

And Katie Lahey from the Business Council of Australia said on 6 May:

To drag on the debate whilst we have got this global financial crisis is just one more complexity that business has got to factor into its planning cycle …

That is what business is saying across the country. They want certainty; they want certainty for the future. We need certainty in terms of action on climate change and we need certainty also for the business community. The attitude adopted by the Leader of the Opposition on this is of direct relevance because it goes to whether or not this proposal obtains passage through the parliament per medium of the Senate. It was on this matter that the Leader of the Opposition was asked the question point blank yesterday on Insiders: ‘Are you still in favour of an emissions trading scheme?’ to which the Leader of the Opposition said:

Yes Barrie, I am.

… yes, I’ve got no doubt we will have an emissions trading scheme in Australia. That’s my view.

The opposition leader’s express target is five per cent unconditional, and then you go up the range to 15 and 25. It begs the question: if you are supporting a five per cent unconditional target and the other targets of 15 and 25 are unconditional, why on earth don’t you support legislation now? Where is the logic that underpins the proposition that you have actually got to postpone this until after Copenhagen. If the five per cent target is unconditional and the government’s target is unconditional and the other targets beyond that—15 and 25—are conditional on the global outcome at Copenhagen, then why on earth does the Leader of the Opposition advance a logical proposition which says that he cannot support legislation now? It simply does not add up as a matter of policy logic. What it does add up to support is a matter of political expediency, because it goes to what is actually happening within the coalition at present.

Firstly, there is the attitude of the National Party. Remember that the Leader of the Opposition has said that his position is that he supports emissions trading. That is his policy. The Leader of the Nationals in the Senate was asked this question today and said that Malcolm Turnbull does not have a policy. He said, ‘Only Kevin Rudd has a policy,’ and added, ‘I haven’t seen Malcolm Turnbull’s policy’. That was his first proposition. He then went on to say that he hoped dearly that the Liberal Party does not support an emissions trading scheme. He then said—and this is not just your average ‘Nat’; this is the bloke who runs the Nats up in the Senate where the numbers are—

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