Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyons for his question. I also acknowledge the member for Lyons’s strong engagement with the forestry sector in his electorate and the work that he has been doing there for some time, advocating that stored carbon in forest products forms part of Australia’s negotiating strategy as we move towards Copenhagen. At Old Parliament House this morning we held the Agriculture Roundtable where I, and officials from my department and the Department of Climate Change, met with the leadership of the farmers’ organisations, state-by-state, nationally and commodity-by-commodity. We worked through issues relating to the work program for the decisions that need to be made in 2013 as to whether or not agriculture would be included in the scheme in 2015.

We also had a briefing from ABARE. Members will remember that I referred to some figures in passing last Thursday as to the costs on farmers of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. That information has now been released and was provided to the people this morning. I am happy to provide the full information to the parliament by tabling that ABARE report now.

The question also asks me about what different threats and opportunities there are for action through the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, given that there are many people within this House and within the Senate who do not have the same constructive relationship that the farm organisations had this morning. I referred before to there being a claim of a constructive role from the Leader of the Nationals, where he had said, ‘We have always said we are prepared to play a constructive role’—while the Leader of the Nationals in the other place paraphrases that by saying, ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ Yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition made the comment that was referred to earlier by the Prime Minister:

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

A journalist then—I think this morning—put that quote back to the Leader of the Nationals. I think the journalist was pretty faithful to the quote from the Leader of the Opposition: ‘On climate change, Malcolm Turnbull, the Leader of the Opposition, says, “There will be an ETS.” Will the Nats ever support that?’ And the Leader of the Nationals said, ‘Well, he didn’t quite say that.’

I am not sure how the claim from the Leader of the Opposition of, ‘I’ve got no doubt that we will have an emissions trading scheme,’ is not quite saying, ‘There will be an ETS.’ But apparently when the Nationals have a look at it, that is what that means. It is more confusion from the same group, as I have said before, that has provided a shadow minister who puts himself forward as a climate change sceptic. He then goes on to be the only climate change sceptic in a media release to claim that climate change is a massive threat. He is a climate change sceptic who describes climate change as a massive threat! They are special people in the National Party!

We as the government have gone forward. As the Prime Minister mentioned earlier, the CPRS is not the only part of our response to climate change. There is significant research work going on both in the areas of adaptation announced recently and in the recent announcement with respect to biochar. On the adaptation work extreme temperatures have become an important part of dealing with climate change. That is why under the Climate Change Research Program we have extreme temperature research into livestock industries involving the CSIRO and the University of Melbourne. Changes in CO2 levels have an impact on cropping—possibly there will be some advantages to some cropping sectors with respect to CO2 concentration—and that work is being done under Australia’s farming future with partnerships for the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the Grains Research and Development Corporation. There are industry opportunities as well in Northern Australia in being part of Australia’s farming future. As well as that we have launched, at $1.4 million, the largest biochar research project in Australia’s history.

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