Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

But what has been made clear is that John Hewson favours a price on carbon. Malcolm Fraser favours a price on carbon. Malcolm Turnbull, the member for Wentworth, favours a price on carbon and the former Prime Minister John Howard favours a price on carbon. That ought to give a pretty clear message, one would think, to those opposite that they are definitely proceeding on the wrong track with their direct action policy.

I want to again commend Professor Garnaut for the great service that he has done to Australia with the update of his 2008 report. In the report that he released today he made very clear points, one of them being that in mainstream science the expectations of what will happen if we 'let emissions rip', to use Professor Garnaut's phrase, have become a bit more grim. A second point, and it is a somewhat optimistic point that Professor Garnaut made today, was that technology is advancing faster than expected. He gave us the example of the take-up rate for electric cars. The third important point that Professor Garnaut made today was that the case for action is stronger than it was a few years ago. We should have acted much earlier than we have. With every year that passes the cost of taking action will grow, and that is why it is important that we proceed now with as much speed as possible to introduce a carbon price in Australia, starting on 1 July next year with a fixed price.

This is a reform which is in the national interest. It is a reform which will see Australia doing our fair share. It is a reform in which we will be able to show the rest of the world how to reduce emissions and, by doing so, urge the rest of the world—because we need the rest of the world to act—to reduce their emissions. It is a reform which will let us move our economy towards the low-carbon economy of the future, towards the clean energy of the future. We will withstand pressures from sectional interests because it is in the national interest that we continue to do so. (Time expired)

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