Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I did notice you arrive, and congratulations on your elevation to that lofty position. I am hoping I am not going to have many disagreements with you, but nevertheless there may be some.

We know what the impacts of climate change are. The world community knows what the impacts of climate change are. Yet the opposition, as I said, have chosen to ignore it and they are now asking the Australian community to accept a plan for climate change which they themselves cannot even explain, a policy initiative which is unexplainable. They cannot tell us how it is going to work.

Labor provided unprecedented support for renewable energy, through the Renewable Energy Target, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, among other things. Whilst we were in government, with the policies we had in place, Australia's wind capacity trebled and more than one million households had solar panels installed, up from fewer than 7,500 under the previous Howard government. Employment in the renewable energy industry more than doubled, to over 24,000 people. During the first year of the carbon price, around 150,000 jobs were created, the economy continued to grow at 2.5 per cent and inflation remained low. Pollution in the National Electricity Market decreased by seven per cent. Renewable power generation as a share of the National Electricity Market increased by 25 per cent.

Australians know what a huge challenge climate change is for our country. Summers are hotter; droughts are longer; extreme weather events are now more commonplace. Labor has said that we will support the repeal of the carbon tax, but we cannot do nothing. We have proposed a middle ground that can be reached to ensure that we act on carbon pollution. Labor is willing to work to ensure Australia is not left doing nothing. Labor's amendments will put a legal cap on carbon pollution; retain the Climate Change Authority, to ensure robust, independent analysis and advice; and stop the cuts to Australia's renewable energy research and development. As it stands, the Prime Minister's legislation scraps the cap and pays big polluters to pollute. That will amount to nothing. Faced with a choice between doing something to address pollution and doing nothing, Labor will act. Labor's amendments are a smart and sensible middle ground to ensure we act on carbon pollution and do not gamble the future.

On the other hand, the coalition's approach will—it is argued, from studies done by the Monash University Centre of Policy Studies—see pollution increase by eight to 10 per cent above 2000 levels by 2020; reduce pollution by nearly one-third less than Labor's policy would deliver; require significant additional investment of between $4 billion and $15 billion to achieve the 2020 target of at least a five per cent reduction on 2000 levels; see costs and pollution both increase over time—and even with spending increasing to around $88 billion from 2014 to 2050, pollution will still increase by about 45 per cent over this period; and subsidise the pollution of businesses who do not make changes, with these public subsidies calculated at around $50 billion to 2020.

We have a choice in this place to act responsibly in the best interests of the Australian community. The Australian community demands nothing less of us. I say to the government: think very, very carefully about where you are heading and where you are taking us, because it will not be me who suffers; it will be my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. They are the ones who will suffer as a direct consequence of the policies being advocated through these proposals from the government. (Time expired)

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