Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the most notable aspects of the singularly unsuccessful first year of this government has been the way that the Abbott cabinet has shown itself to be consistently more extreme and more out of touch than even the Howard government at its worst. Say what you like about John Howard—and I had plenty to say at the time—but he was never so extreme that he would sacrifice the jobs of thousands of Australians in the auto manufacturing industry on a bonfire of ideological purity. He was never so out of touch that he would seek to repeal Australia's racial vilification laws against the wishes of 80 per cent of Australians. Even John Howard was never so extreme and out of touch to completely ignore the obligation of those of us in this place to take climate change seriously. For many of those currently opposite, climate change is just another front in the culture wars—a political debating point to be pursued regardless of the real world consequences. But it was not always so. In fact, on this very day in 2007 the then Prime Minister John Howard announced the details of the emissions trading scheme that he intended to commence no later than 2012.

John Howard told the Melbourne Press Club on this day in 2007:

Climate change is a large, complex and serious global challenge that will occupy the world for decades to come. Over time, the scientific evidence that the climate is warming has become quite compelling and the link between emissions of greenhouse gases from human activity and higher temperatures is also convincing.

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Our great and unique natural ecosystems, like the Great Barrier Reef, are potentially threatened and many of our major industries, not least agriculture, are highly sensitive to changes in the climate.

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This challenge, I believe, is best met by a blend of prudent conservatism and economic liberalism. A prudent conservative knows we are but temporary stewards of the environment.

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Reducing carbon emissions will mean higher energy and petrol prices. Australians need to understand that.

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The best way to combat global climate change is to progressively tighten the screws on emissions while encouraging clean technologies for an energy hungry world.

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Being among the first movers on carbon trading in this region will bring new opportunities and we intend to grasp them.

I quote from Prime Minister Howard at length to highlight the contrast between his views and the current leadership of the Liberal Party. Prime Minister Howard made these comments just seven years ago, but they are light-years away from where the Liberal Party has regressed to on this issue under the current Prime Minister. If you listened to those opposite in question time, you would think that Labor's support for an emissions trading scheme, a policy taken to the 2007 election by John Howard, was some kind of socialist plot to destroy the Australian economy.

Of course, it is not only with respect to carbon pricing that the Abbott government is intent on trashing the legacy of the Howard government on climate policy. An additional imminent threat in this regard is the Abbott government's current review of the renewable energy target. Since the RET was introduced in 2001 by the Howard government, we have seen $18 billion of investment in renewable energy in this country. Recent polls show that 77 per cent of Australians believe in keeping the RET and 85 per cent believe that keeping a renewable energy target is the 'right thing to do'. Yet, despite this, the Abbott government has appointed a climate sceptic to undertake its review of the RET, and we read regular leaks in the papers from members of the coalition backbench intent on tearing up this legacy of the Howard government.

The Liberal Party under Tony Abbott is but a shadow of the institution that it once was under John Howard. The kinds of views that we regularly see advanced by those opposite today would have been seen as kooky and extremist even in the Young Liberals of the Howard era. The member for Wentworth belled the cat in 2009 when he stated:

The Liberal Party is currently led by people whose conviction on climate change is that it is 'crap' and you don't need to do anything about it. Any policy that is announced will simply be a con, an environmental figleaf to cover a determination to do nothing.

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Many Liberals are rightly dismayed that on this vital issue of climate change we are not simply without a policy, without any prospect of having a credible policy but we are now without integrity. We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted.

The Prime Minister has become fond in recent times of drawing historical comparisons between members of the Labor Party in this parliament and our historical forebears. It is worth pondering how the Prime Minister measures up against this test. In his first year in office, Tony Abbott has already shown that he is certainly no John Howard. Unsurprisingly, for a more appropriate historical comparison for this Prime Minister, we need to look further into our nation's past. We need to look towards a Prime Minister who the former Deputy Prime Minister, Doug Anthony, said was 'just not big enough for the job'. In 1994, Paul Keating described the then opposition leader, Alexander Downer, as 'the most foolish political leader of this country since Billy McMahon'. Well, the Prime Minister has done Alexander Downer a favour because he has now taken the crown. On his performance to date, Tony Abbott can only dream of, one day, becoming as popular and respected as Billy McMahon.

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