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

I go to his ‘Kennedyesque’ preamble to his question. I noted them all down. They go to renewable energy, the future of coal fired generation and other forms of generation, a national transmission system, peak load stations and also a national electricity market—and the role within all that of a feed-in tariff regime, as I understand it.

In terms of our commitment, first of all, to action on climate change, the government’s strategy is clear. We are proceeding on at least three separate fronts. Firstly, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, as honourable members would be aware, has been introduced by the government to the parliament. We await with active interest what those opposite will do in terms of a critical vote which must occur on it. We know that those opposite have voted so far to do one thing, which is to vote not to vote on it.

But we, the government, have decided that the way ahead is for Australia to have a legislative regime in place because of the needs of business certainty and because of the impending meeting in Copenhagen, which affects us all. The decisions taken there will affect what happens with greenhouse gas emissions globally and, critically, the roll-in of the big economies.

The second front that we are operating on, of course, is what we are doing on energy efficiency. We have particular measures on that already advanced, not least of which is the $4 billion investment that we have underway at present for energy efficiency measures for homes—namely, to have as an objective for the nation energy efficiency measures including ceiling insulation in all of Australia’s owner occupied dwellings. That is a good objective for the nation—and good for jobs also, on the way through—but very good in terms of taking 50 million tonnes equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere.

The third front that we are operating on is the renewable energy target, and of course that goes to the question of legislation as well. We wait with interest as to the posture that will be adopted by those opposite. This is also important, as honourable members would be aware, to the matters I raised earlier in the week about creating the legislative regime to provide discounts effectively for consumers wanting to install solar panels in the future. It is critical that this legislation is passed because it goes to how in fact we are going to provide renewable energy certificates—

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