Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to speak on this matter of public importance because I have had a deep concern about climate change for over 30 years. I have watched the snowline rise south of here, and it is something that I have thought hard about for over 30 years. That has meant that I have come to the conclusion that there are three things that taking climate change seriously really means. The first is effective and consistent policies that actually contain global atmospheric concentrations. Secondly, that you bring the Australian people along with you. Thirdly, you protect the Australian economy so that we can pay for all of this. Let me tell you what I believe it does not mean. It does not mean throwing lots of money at the problem for the sake of it. It does not mean passing encyclopedias of legislation. It does not mean putting endless programs in place. It does not mean establishing a cavalry of so-called independent advisers and advisory boards. It does not mean turning up at lots of global meetings.

Let us look at how the ALP did on the things taking change seriously do not mean. First of all they supported a carbon tax costing $15.4 billion over two years and which, if it had stayed in place, would have cost $1 trillion by 2050. It cost $700 million across 75,000 businesses and $550 per household. They created encyclopedias of legislation and we heard from the Minister for the Environment about the endless programs they put in place: pink batts, cash for clunkers, the citizens assembly. They established reams of authorities and independent advisers—CEFC, ARENA, CCA. God knows how many of their lapdogs were on the payroll telling them what they wanted to hear. And, of course, they turned up at endless global meetings, including the former Prime Minister at Copenhagen, and achieved absolutely nothing with it.

Let us look at how they actually performed on the things that matter. How did they contribute to reducing global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide? Their own Climate Change Authority told us that emissions went up under their policies and were going to continue to go up from 590 million tonnes per annum in 2010 to 620 million tonnes per annum by the end of the decade. Perhaps even more frighteningly, they pushed carbon emissions offshore. We know from studies done across the world that putting a domestic price on local carbon production just outsources carbon emissions. Since 1990 the production of carbon in Europe has dropped but consumption of carbon has gone up by something like four times more than they have been able to reduce. So what have they achieved? They have simply outsourced their carbon emissions to China, India and the developing world. We see this pattern repeated many times across the developing world. In fact, The Economist tells us that across the developing world in fact all carbon policies have simply pushed carbon emissions into China and India and achieved absolutely nothing in the process.

In my own electorate I have seen this in action. One of the biggest employers in my electorate, the Tahmoor colliery, by its own admission, in all likelihood would have shut down if the carbon tax had stayed in place. What we would have seen if it had shut down was that coal production replaced by coal production in Indonesia or in China. We would have lost the jobs for absolutely no gain. It gets worse, because the Indonesian and Chinese coal produces more carbon than we would have from the coal coming out of the Tahmoor colliery—destroying jobs and not reducing global carbon emissions. Not making any difference at all.

Their position was never coherent. Worse, it cost the Australian economy. Outsourcing emissions meant outsourcing jobs, mining and manufacturing. Of course, we know that their carbon price, their carbon tax, was the highest in the world. That, of course, was having a dramatic impact on the Australian economy. In contrast, our policies are about incentives, not penalties; they are broad based, not narrow; and we are bringing the Australian people along with us. Labor has only ever pretended to take climate change seriously, because they mistook bureaucracy, consultants and spending for outcomes. We will never make that mistake.

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