Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to acknowledge a well-known and very talented actor, Noni Hazlehurst, who was recently on Q&A. She made the comment that she has worked with a lot of children and has dealt with the terrible twos, where two-year-olds just say, 'No, no, no' to everything. I think what has been proven today is that you do not have to be two years old to chuck a tantrum. The member for Indi was very good at chucking a tantrum today, so I think Noni's comment on Q&A the other week was certainly appropriate in relation to the way that the opposition is dealing with policy in this country; it is about opposing everything.

The reality for the Leader of the Opposition, if you want to talk about explanations, is that the people in my electorate are eager to learn more about the clean energy future plan, and we should not treat these people as fools. They do understand. When you go out, when you talk to them and when you provide them with information, they understand why it is important we act, why it is important that we put in place an interim fixed carbon price for three years and why it is important in 2015 that we move to a market based mechanism for a carbon price. They understand this. They understand also that that will come with some cost. They also understand that it is the federal Labor government that is stepping up and providing assistance to households and also supporting industry and jobs and investing in clean energy and renewables.

What the people in my electorate do not understand and are wanting an explanation for is where the opposition think they are going to get the money to support their climate change policy—for what it is worth—to meet what they claim are the same targets that have been set by this government. Today in question time the Prime Minister said that both parties are committed to the same targets. The Leader of the Opposition sat there and shook his head. He shook his head, saying, 'No, no, no; we haven't got the same targets.' So each day we do not know whether they are committed or not to dealing with climate change.

To give the Australian people some insight as to the opposition's commitment to dealing with climate change, we only need to go back to the recent comments by the shadow Treasurer when being interviewed on Lateline by Tony Jones. He was asked: 'You say that if you get into government you are going to scrap 12,000 Public Service jobs. Where would you cut these 12,000 Public Service jobs from?' What about the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency? The shadow Treasurer said that he does not believe any of their modelling. When asked the question, 'Would you consider disbanding the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency?' there were no ifs and no buts—the shadow Treasurer said yes.

It is not just all the jobs that would go—and they are worried about the economy and they are talking about actually taking away jobs—but it is the fact that they say they have a climate change policy at the same time as the shadow Treasurer is saying, 'Oh, if we get into government, there goes the whole department. We don't need a department to look into climate change, clean energy or renewables.'

These are the explanations that need to go out to the Australian people. This is what the Australian people want to hear. If the Leader of the Opposition is going to go out there and run a scare campaign—we heard it from the member for Indi today; we heard it from the member for Cowper—talking about closing industries, loss of jobs, cost-of-living increases and damage to the economy, where is their alternative policy? How is it being costed? Where are all these trees covering the size of Tasmania and Victoria combined going to be planted? We heard the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency talking about that in question time today.

The opposition talk about alleged increases in the cost of living. Modelling by Treasury has estimated a 0.7 per cent increase on the CPI for our country to take the historic step of addressing climate change and implementing a carbon price. What you do not hear from the other side when they criticise the modelling done by the same department and the same people who did the modelling for the GST is that when the GST was introduced it actually created an increase of more than three per cent on the CPI. But we do not hear them going out and telling everyone that. They would not want to go out and actually compare the Howard government's policies and actions to what this government has done since it came in during 2007, because if they did that they would be embarrassed and shown for what they are: a party that just believes in opposing for the sake of opposing and who want to engage in popular politics—and they do not care what that means. If it means saying one thing one day and something else the other, that is what they will do. The Prime Minister, the cabinet—every member of this government—has been out explaining to people across Australia what this clean energy future plan is all about.

The Leader of the Opposition has been trying to do that, going out talking about Labor's policy, talking about their policy a little bit. He is starting to have a bit of a problem there.

Mr Hartsuyker interjecting—

The Leader of the Opposition just hit a little bit of a snag, maybe, Member for Cowper! Just a little bit of a problem there—he couldn't get into a butcher's. He lined up all of the media to do another stunt. We have done the Weet-Bix and everything else. The Leader of the Opposition tried to set up his little media stunt with a local butcher, but it all came apart because the butcher didn't want a bar of it.

The reality is, despite all the huff and puff from those on the other side—a lot of allegations thrown around—there is very little statistics, very little fact. Why? Because they would rather go out into businesses and run scare campaigns. They would rather go out there, get attention and say that whole industries are going to shut and jobs are going to disappear. But in fact we know that that is not true. Members of the opposition again stood there today making all these allegations—talking about steel, talking about manufacturing, talking about mining but definitely not quoting anyone. Of course they would not want to quote David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, who on 31 July 2011 wrote to the Prime Minister of Australia saying:

I was delighted to hear of the ambitious package of climate change policy measures you announced on July 10 and wanted to congratulate you on taking this bold step.

You would not want to quote Cameron Clyne, the NAB CEO, saying:

“If you’re asking for an economic assessment of the two, the carbon price followed by an ETS is economically superior to the direct action policy,” he said.

“It will drive certainty, it will drive investment, so as a straight comparison between the two, that’s the choice.”

We had comments from the bank chief economist supporting that. We have OneSteel CEO saying:

We believe that on balance, the sectoral approach announced today by the Prime Minister for the steel industry, including the introduction of the STP is both appropriate and sensible. We are pleased that the Government has responded by adopting this approach.

BlueScope managing director and CEO on 10 July said:

This is a pragmatic solution to a complex problem.

None of those quotes were made today by the member for Indi, the member for Flinders or the member for Cowper when they stood here and claimed that jobs would be lost in steel manufacturing, that industries would close down, that there would be cost of living increases. These are all things that the opposition do not want to talk about. (Time expired)

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