Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

It is always relevant, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Rudd Labor government has no clue as to the costs its CPRS will have for the administration and operations of Defence. Furthermore, it has no idea how it will pay for the offsets that it will have to fund in order for Defence to continue with its operations and training. For every flight of an FA18, for every hour of sea time for an Anzac class frigate, for every kilometre a Bushmaster travels, there will be a new cost imposed to pay for their emissions—a cost that will be directly passed on to taxpayers. Let me reiterate: this government has no idea of the notional costs involved in running Defence equipment, let alone the increased costs associated with its great big new tax.

By stark comparison, the coalition’s direct action policy provides incentives for Australian families and businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and focuses on meaningful, effective and direct action to improve Australia’s environment. Our incentive-based approach will reduce emissions as well as address some of Australia’s serious environmental problems. The Prime Minister is not sure how to react to the recent admission by President Obama that he is considering an incentive-based approach. In the President’s own words:

… incentivising clean energy so that it’s the cheaper, more effective kind of energy, is one that’s been proven to work, and it’s a market-based approach.

This must be quite an embarrassment for the Prime Minister. No longer has he got the excuse that action in the form of an ETS is the only way forward. I congratulate President Obama for moving towards a direct action plan. Our intransigent Prime Minister has now become the emperor with no clothes. Everyone but the Prime Minister is beginning to see the nakedness of his argument, and it is not pretty.

The coalition’s proposed scheme seeks to reduce carbon emissions by five per cent. Labor’s emissions trading scheme, or emissions taxing scheme, seeks to reduce carbon emissions by five per cent. But that is where the similarity ends. The coalition will take direct action which will take advantage of Australia’s natural advantages, soil and sun, both of which we have in abundance. The coalition’s direct action plan is careful, costed and capped, reducing emissions without a tax on everything. Under the coalition’s plan there will be no job losses; there will only be job opportunities. Under the coalition’s plan, there will be no increases in energy prices—only incentives to reduce emissions. Under the coalition’s plan, we will match the five per cent reduction.

On behalf of my constituents, I have to ask: if you can get the same cuts to emissions as the Rudd Labor government scheme through direct and practical action, why would you proceed with a $140 billion money-go-round that will raise the cost of living for Australian families and cost jobs? At a time when we need to grow our economy to get out of the global financial crisis and pay off this Rudd Labor government’s massive debt, we do not need to penalise the economy further. The only thing that is clear is that, no matter what the cost of the Rudd Labor government CPRS, that cost will raise prices for virtually all consumer goods and services, it will hurt working families and small businesses by drastically increasing electricity costs and it will cost local jobs, all by ignoring real environmental concerns which should be passed onto the Australian—(Time expired)

See this speech in context