Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to speak on the environment portfolio and the energy portfolio—two very important areas of government attention. Let me start by saying that the coalition has a very strong and proud track record in relation to environmental matters. Go back to the time of Malcolm Fraser and the work that he did to protect Fraser Island and Uluru National Park. Go back to the time of John Howard, who came up with the first renewable energy target in the year 2000. He was also instrumental in establishing—with, I note, the member next to me—the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which is now in force. Prime Minister Abbott, during his time in office, included the banning of dredge disposal in the marine park of the Great Barrier Reef. Of course, the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has been a strong proponent of effective and efficient action in emissions reduction, including going to Paris with a very significant target of a 26 to 28 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2030, which is going to place us in the upper echelon of the G20 in terms of targets.

In terms of the budget overview, I would like to make a few comments. Firstly, in terms of the Great Barrier Reef this budget strengthens the government's commitment with a $171 million boost. This includes a $70 million additional injection to the Reef Trust, which brings the government's total investment in the Reef Trust to $210 million. Obviously, this will be important for water quality projects and the like. There is also an extra $101 million for the National Landcare Program, which will help us implement the Reef 2050 Plan.

In terms of Antarctica, this government is making a very significant financial and resources commitment to research in that area. The centrepiece is the new icebreaker, and of course there is more than $200 million over 10 years from 2016-17. So that is a more than $2 billion commitment.

In terms of this portfolio, one of the most significant changes was the Prime Minister's decision to bring the portfolios of energy and environment together. That is important because climate change and energy policy are effectively two sides of the one coin. We are working to reduce our emissions. I am advised that we are on track to meet our 2020 targets by 78 million tonnes, having already beaten our first Kyoto target by 128 million tonnes of abatement. We have a number of policies, whether it is the Emissions Reduction Fund, with more than 600 projects, or whether it is what we are doing in terms of our energy efficiency program to try to get a 40 per cent boost in productivity and energy efficiency by 2030.

I had the pleasure recently of going to Brunei for the Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit, which was an initiative of my distinguished predecessor, Greg Hunt, the member for Flinders. This meeting brought together representatives from 42 countries, including 600 different stakeholders. We talked about trying to reduce the amount of deforestation across the world as a way of boosting the environment and local communities and, of course, also reducing global emissions. Between 1990 and 2010, forests contracted in size by 3.3 million hectares, which is greater than the size of Vietnam.

This government is doing a lot of positive things. In fact, just the other day I was able to place the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme as 107th on the National Heritage List, which is very significant. We were able to announce $5 million for a new conservatory at the botanical gardens here in Canberra. Of course, we were a leading part of the recent announcement of the phasing out of hydrofluorocarbons under the Montreal protocol by 85 per cent, which will be very significant in the future. (Time expired)

See this speech in context