Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

A figment of their imagination; an illusion—that is correct. Everyone in the House knows that this legislation is only being debated because of a deal between the Prime Minister, the Greens and the Independents. The $10 billion is nothing more than a pay-off to the Greens for their one vote in the House—$10 billion for one vote; that is a very expensive vote indeed. The fact is that I am surprised that the Independents would ignore the wishes of their electorates, ignore common sense and vote with the government on this farce. It is indeed very regrettable.

What is also extremely disappointing is the cold hard reality that this $10 billion in funding will do absolutely nothing for the environment and reducing carbon emissions. As my colleague the member for Flinders has consistently noted, the $10 billion fund will create no new renewable energy. Prior to the creation of the fund the target was 20 per cent. Now that the fund has been created the target is still 20 per cent. There will be no additional renewable energy because of this expenditure. So all that this taxpayers' money will do is sideline existing renewable technologies, which are currently more expensive technologies, but the renewable energy pie will not grow.

Questions over the environmental benefits of such a huge government spend have also been raised by the Centre for Independent Research Studies. Research fellow of the centre Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich has released a report titled A waste of energy: why the clean energy finance corporation is redundant. He is a very wise man. Dr Hartwich notes in his report:

The physical effect of energy subsidies is precisely zero in an environment where the total emissions are pre-determined by a trading scheme. Not a single gram of carbon dioxide is saved by pumping money into renewables.

We all know that under the carbon tax the government's own figures forecast that emissions will rise. We all know that while we are introducing the planet's biggest carbon tax some of our biggest trading partners are either walking away from carbon pricing or embarking on a major increase in their use of fossil fuels. It is absolute folly for Australia to be risking $10 billion of government money on a Greens slush fund when there is no evidence that it will cool the planet, change the climate or deliver any meaningful environmental outcome. The only thing we do know is that this government has no mandate to appropriate these funds and the Greens will use this as platform in the lead-up to the next election.

What a disgrace it is that the government can use creative accounting to waste so much money and leave such a massive legacy of debt for future generations. The next federal election will be not only a referendum on the carbon tax but also an opportunity for Australians to decide on what they believe should be the priorities for the next government. Australians can decide whether they wish for $10 billion of their hard-earned money to be spent on a speculative pie-in-the-sky renewable technology program which is likely to lead to massive capital losses or whether they want to return to sensible economic management.

This government should be condemned for introducing this legislation and it should be ashamed for placing so much taxpayers' money at risk. It is not only undemocratic; it uses questionable accounting techniques and it gambles tens of billions of dollars on speculative projects. That is why the coalition opposes this legislation and it is why the Independents should vote against this legislation. That is why they should move away from their support of the government and support good old common sense, which is that you do not waste $10 billion and you do not invest money when you know you are going to lose it. It is about time the government came to its senses and abandoned this crazy plan.

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