Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He is a bit of a pork chop on this one, as has been pointed out by my colleague. I think I need to get on with my speech. All these things are falsehoods and rely on scare tactics trying to frighten people against the reality of what needs to be done. We need to bear in mind that the purpose of creating this scheme is to challenge each and every one of us to rethink how we use energy and how large a carbon footprint we leave.

Those who decry the cost to consumers often fail to acknowledge the government’s plan to compensate consumers, particularly the most disadvantaged in our community. The government has committed to a 2.5 per cent increase in the age pension. This is not the recent increase, which was quite historic and dramatic; this is an additional increase, an up-front concession increase for self-funded retirees. For ordinary families, there will be increases in the family tax benefit and a dollar for dollar reduction in fuel tax to assist motorists. This compensation will be paid for from a cost charged to polluters for buying carbon permits. The sale of the permits will raise $11.5 billion dollars for the Australian government in 2010-11. Every cent will be used to help households and businesses adjust to the scheme. In other words, yes, the government will be getting $11.5 billion in but it will not be keeping a cent. It will all be going out to businesses and most especially to families, pensioners and self-funded retirees.

Some detractors on the other side would argue that the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will only punish industry and cause them to go out of business—another untruth. Australian industry is much more resilient than that. Look how well we are doing in this global financial crisis. Australian industry will be ideally positioned to lead the world in innovations that will achieve carbon abatement. In fact, the longer we delay, the greater we hold up industry. The longer we delay, the more we miss out on opportunities not only for R&D and for design but for manufacturing and having a smooth transition in our economy.

New technologies for reducing carbon emissions which come about as a result of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will then be able to be sold around the world as part of a global solution. Treasury modelling projects that by 2050 the renewable electricity sector alone will be 30 times larger than it is today. A 2009 Climate Institute study shows that $31 billion of clean energy projects are already under way or planned in response to the government’s climate change policies. These will generate around 26,000 new jobs, mostly in regional areas,.

A number of factors will drive this innovation. First among these will be the need for government incentive and, secondly, the price at which carbon permits are set. These will encourage research and development in new technologies. Rather than hurt jobs, as many opponents have suggested and as we have heard in this place, this scheme is designed to help support the jobs of today while putting in place a scheme which will help create the low-pollution jobs of the future. A target of opposition untruth is the coal industry and how the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will impact on them and on jobs within their industry. The government recognises the importance of the coal industry to our economy and local jobs. That is why we have designed a CPRS—to ensure that assistance is provided to the mines which need it most during the introduction of the scheme. The Australian Treasury has undertaken a comprehensive economic modelling which shows that the coal industry will continue to grow and is projected to increase by more than 50 per cent by 2050. Hurting jobs? That is not a sign of hurting jobs.

It is important to note that a large majority of coal mining is not emissions intensive. Half of all coal production in Australia will have a liability for their fugitive emissions of 80c or less per saleable tonne of coal. Given that coal is currently selling for around $70 to $150 a tonne in export markets, it is misleading to suggest that a carbon cost of this magnitude will lead to decisions to close mines. Would you close a mine if you had an impost of 80c per tonne and you were getting $150 per tonne? I do not think rational or sane businessmen, or even accountants, would recommend that. The government has recognised, however, that the most emissions intensive mines, which represent about 12 per cent of Australia’s coal production, will face a material cost under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The government has allocated $750 million in targeted assistance over the first five years to these mines. This assistance will allow emissions intensive mines to investigate and implement abatement opportunities and will ease their transition to the introduction of a carbon price.

In conclusion, I will finish where I started off: what a wonderful example the Montreal protocol is of international action, national action and ordinary people understanding we have a problem. I think that ordinary people well understand that governments need to act, and act now. And if we want to get the rest of the world to act, we cannot take a back seat: we need to have this scheme introduced and proceeding to implementation before that most important international conference at Copenhagen. We need to set an example for others to follow. I strongly support these bills.

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