Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is not bad. They have purchased 25 per cent green electricity. So there are a few things that can be done. I just wanted to make sure the member for Dunkley was aware of that before he starts purchasing pink batts to put on the lawn to protect the building. It might spoil the aesthetics of it a little bit!

The member for Mayo also made some interesting comments about insulation. He seemed surprised that we had rushed out this insulation program and seemed to forget something called the global financial crisis—that little thing that those opposite tend to forget about, that little dip in the world’s GDP growth that occurred, the most significant economic downturn in the last 75 years. That is why we have these programs. That is why we were able to combine looking after jobs with looking after the long-term future of the planet by bringing insulation into our homes—bringing it together.

The member for Mayo did not want to talk about insulation; he was happy to talk about water. There is such irony in someone talking about insulation briefly and then going on to talk about water and glossing over the fact that John Howard, the former Prime Minister, rushed in this $10 billion water plan that he had not even taken the time to take to Treasury for them to consider. The member for Mayo said, ‘No, that was okay,’ for the $10 billion but something done during a global financial crisis is ‘rushed’. Of course it was rushed. It had to be rushed because we wanted to protect jobs.

Also, as a member for South Australia he did not see that connection between water and climate change. He just totally ignored that. He went on and on about Minister Wong’s focus on climate change—and a little thing called the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme that we are trying to get through the Senate!—as if it was a bad thing and we should be focusing on water. He did not get the fundamental science right. I think the member for Mayo is an intelligent guy. He is well read. He has got a vision for the future. I would hope that he is not one of the coalition gang of 10 that do not believe in climate change. But obviously water and climate change are interconnected. The Goyder line in South Australia is heading south, and we need to do whatever we can to ensure that we prepare farmers, communities and Australia for climate change.

The bills before the House direct urgent funds to meet the demand for two of the Rudd government’s very timely and very popular stimulus measures. It is interesting that, when you have a program that involves ordinary Australian households in a practical response to climate change, they put their hands up in record numbers. Hundreds of thousands of them put their hands up to be a part of it. The industry is cooking, with more than 135,000 homes insulated every month—far exceeding expectations. The initial forecast was for up to 90,000 homes to be insulated per month, but we have gone far beyond that. In my electorate of Moreton we had already received more than 3,000 home insulation applications as at September. That is 3,000 homes. If you have, say, at least three people per house, that is 10,000 people who are more comfortable in summer and 10,000 people who will be less cold in winter. We actually do have winters in Queensland! There will be fewer kilowatt hours of electricity, which obviously contributes to dangerous climate change, and savings of up to 40 per cent for households that have insulation put in.

The constituents continue to contact me to let me know just how much they appreciate this funding. In fact, in Brisbane a few years ago we had a real problem with water supply. Dams were down to nearly 16 per cent, so a lot of people who wanted to maintain their gardens went about installing rainwater tanks that had drifted out of favour in the seventies due to a council bylaw. A lot of people now, if they have gardens, often have a sign out the front saying ‘rainwater tank in use’ or ‘rainwater in use’. I have got one out the front of my place. Maybe it would be appropriate for us to fund a similar sign for people who have batts in their house, such as ‘I am not a sceptic’ or ‘No dinosaurs live here’ or something like that. We should perhaps fund some of those alternative signs to show that people are forward thinking.

The insulation factories in Brisbane are running 24/7 because installing insulation has been so popular. However, obviously there are employers and employees who have been supported by this program—and we heard from the member for Lindsay who talked about the utes and trucks that he sees everywhere. I see a similar thing when I go for a walk every morning in Salisbury and Moorooka; I see trucks going from the couple of factories near there loaded up with batts as well, off to do good work and save the planet. It is also interesting that when you provide funding to help restore one of the nation’s great waterways the nation’s farmers are also happy to get on board. In fact, the program has already secured more than 600 gigalitres of water entitlements. That is 600,000 million litres, or about 1.6 million swimming pools.

So, sensible Australian households want to be part of the national solution to climate change. Sensible Australian farmers want to be part of the national solution to climate change. But—and it is a big but—the opposition do not want to be part of the solution. Unfortunately they—or some of them; not all of them—are not particularly sensible. The home insulation program is helping to keep thousands of Australians employed. It is also helping thousands of Australian households to play a part in our collective efforts to combat dangerous climate change. The opposition are opposed to these schemes. They vote against them in the parliament and they continue to voice their opposition, leaving them at odds with most Australians. It is strange to see that disconnection between people like the National Party and the farmers whom they normally represent.

These bills will bring forward an additional $700 million for the household insulation program and an additional $330 million for the Water for the Future: Restoring the Balance in the Murray-Darling Basin program. These additional funds will help meet demand up until the end of April next year, when further funding will be available through estimates appropriations bills. Tenders for water entitlement purchases are proposed in the lower connected Murray system and in the lower Condamine and Balonne region in Queensland. I know this section of our waterways very well. I grew up in St George, so I spent my childhood swimming in the Balonne River, where most people went to cool down in summer. It was a very important part of the town for providing irrigation for the cotton farms and now for rockmelons and table grapes and a few things like that. In fact—and I am sure the parliamentary secretary will be happy to hear this—in my novel, The Twelfth Fish, the river is actually called the Jude River, but it is really—

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