Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to put on the public record in this place my views on climate change and putting a price on carbon, and make further comments about the Australian Labor government’s plans to lower carbon pollution and transition our economy to a clean-energy economy.

In my area there is an organisation or collaboration called Sustain Northern Rivers. It started a few years back to tackle the issue of climate change. It is a collaboration and a particular model. It embraces local governments, government departments, agencies and community organisations. They are working on the ground in the community realising that climate change and human contribution to it is a factor and that we have to take action. I am very pleased to have that happening right across my area. I know that we will be doing some more work in the low-carbon communities with them.

People ask: why are we acting? It is absolutely clear to most people that the Australian Labor government is taking action to cut pollution, tackle climate change and create a clean-energy nation. In a choice between action and inaction, we will act. We do not have to lead the world but we cannot afford to be left behind. If we do not act we will see more of the extreme weather events like bushfires, droughts, floods and coastal erosion that we have seen. In my area we will have all of those extreme weather events. We will have more days of extreme heat and we will see our coastline flooded as the sea level rises. If we do not act, Australian jobs will go offshore as the rest of the world overtakes us.

The next question is: how will it work? At the moment, polluters do not have to pay for the pollution they produce. Under a carbon price, the top 1,000 biggest polluters will pay for every tonne of carbon pollution. The more a company pollutes, the more they pay. Those that lower their emissions will be rewarded—as they should be—through paying less tax than the big polluters. Polluters that do not cut their pollution and try to simply pass the costs on will be undercut by companies that do the right thing and invest in clean energy.

The government will then use every cent raised from industry to provide generous household assistance to help with family budgets, protect jobs as businesses make the transition to a clean-energy economy and invest in climate change programs. I will be asking for some of that investment in my area for Sustain Northern Rivers.

There are some key issues around a carbon price. First of all, we on the Labor side believe climate change is real and taking action is the right thing to do. We want the top 1,000 biggest polluting companies to pay for each tonne of carbon pollution they produce. A carbon price will provide incentives for the big polluters to reduce their carbon pollution.

Australia is the worst per-head carbon emitter in the developed world. Other countries are taking action—even China and India. Australia must make a start or our economy will be left behind. We will protect existing jobs while creating new, clean energy jobs. I have some of those already in my area and in my home town of Lismore.

Every cent raised by the carbon price will go to households, to protecting jobs in businesses in transition and to investment in climate change programs. That is what Labor governments do: look after households. There will be generous assistance to households, families and pensioners, and tax cuts are certainly a live option.

Whereas we believe that climate change is real, the coalition deny it. We believe that tackling climate change is the right thing to do, and they are playing politics with a very serious issue. We want the top 1,000 polluters to pay for carbon pollution, and they want to reward them. We want to provide households and pensioners with generous assistance, and their plan, which they are not telling us about, will slug families $720 to subsidise the big polluters. We want to tax big polluters and provide assistance to families, and they want to tax families and provide handouts to big polluters. We want to create a clean energy nation, and their plan is to run a scare campaign against the national interest. We want to build a clean energy economy, and they will endanger our prosperity and jobs.

Tony Abbott is out there saying that we should wait for the rest of the world, but that makes no sense. He has committed to the same carbon reductions that we have, so either he is admitting his plan will not achieve these reductions or he is admitting that the world is moving—and it is one way or the other. (Time expired)

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