Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I will come to that. I am very happy to come to that question. I am talking for the moment, of course, about our commitment to climate change. We all know that the opposition leader holds unreconstructed extremist views on a range of topics. The whole country knows exactly what the Leader of the Opposition thinks about climate change. I think his hesitant and unconvincing responses whenever he is asked about the science of this tells us everything we need to know. The opposition leader has confirmed that this week by coming out with what we know is a con job of a climate policy—a policy which will cost more, which does less and which is unfunded. We have said since day one that there are three problems with the opposition leader’s climate con job: firstly, it slugs taxpayers instead of big polluters; secondly, it does not reduce emissions; and, thirdly, it is unfunded.

On Tuesday it was confirmed in the Liberals’ own figures that this con job would cost taxpayers three times more than the CPRS over the next 10 years. Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition refused to rule out cutting funding to hospitals and defence to pay for the unfunded $10 billion climate con job. Today it has been confirmed by experts in the Department of Climate Change that rather than reducing emissions this policy will actually increase them. What an extraordinary climate change policy: it will increase emissions. Rather than achieve what we want—that is, a minimum five per cent emissions reduction target—the Liberal climate con job will see emissions increase by 13 per cent from year 2000 levels. That means that taxpayers—families, business operators and pensioners—will be slugged with a $10 billion tax bill for a policy that will actually see emissions increase. What a policy. It is a joke. Only someone as perverse as the opposition leader could construe that as taking action on climate change. I think it has now been put beyond any doubt that the $10 billion climate con job costs more, does less and will mean increased taxes or a massive cut to services. What services will be cut?

So there are commitments that the Rudd government wants to honour that are being blocked by a perverse, extremist position taken by the opposition. In May 2009 the Rudd government chose to delay the start of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme by one year, until July 2011, to help Australian companies manage the impacts of the global recession. This was an economically responsible decision to take as Australian businesses were dealing with the worst global recession since the Great Depression. Despite the delayed start date, the signal for businesses to invest and start planning for a low-carbon economy was still clear. Unfortunately, the sceptics—led by the opposition leader—have taken over the Liberal Party and have dumped their election commitment to emissions trading. This was a commitment that was taken to the election by the previous Prime Minister, John Howard. It came late, but it was there. The Rudd government remains committed to the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme as action on climate change is in Australia’s national interest. We must begin the switch to a clean, greener economy. That is essential. So we have reintroduced the legislation to the parliament this week and we encourage all senators to support action on climate change.

Let me come to some other areas where we are helping families and businesses. The Rudd government is committed to delivering a trades training centre to every secondary school across the country by 2018. That program is on track. It is a $2½ billion commitment and allows every school an amount between $500,000 and $1½ million for their centre.

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