Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barker for his question and I acknowledge his deep insight and advocacy for emissions intensive businesses in regional areas because they are crucial to regional Australia. When we arrived into government in 2013, we were faced with not just a financial deficit but a deficit in achieving emission reductions and abatement, because they left us with a 700 million tonne deficit versus our 2020 targets. We now know, from the hard work done by this government and by hardworking Australian businesses and industry, that we'll overachieve on that target by 367 million tonnes. That's a 1.1 billion tonne turnaround. We haven't just turned around their financial deficit; we have turned around their abatement deficit. As we look forward to 2030, we've laid out to the last tonne how we're going to achieve our emissions obligations through our $3½ billion Climate Solutions Package. That's the centrepiece. We'll do this while growing the economy. So we have a clear policy that is delivering results.

We are receiving endorsements for this policy from unusual quarters and unusual places. The member for Hunter has endorsed our policies. The member for Burt has joined with him. It's not just them. The WA state Labor government has said that the government won the election and has a mandate to follow its policies through. On the weekend, the Australian Workers Union—a place that's generated many of those opposite into this place—endorsed our policies.

So whilst we're in lock step with the Australian people and hardworking Australian businesses right across this country, those opposite are for hollow symbolism and empty gestures. We don't yet know what their policies are, but they have followed the Greens to support a climate emergency. The question is: what do they mean by that? The Greens have belled the cat in the Senate, and they have defined a climate emergency. Do you know what it is? No oil, no gas, no coal, no Adani, no Beetaloo and no hope for Australia under those policies. It means terminating literally tens of thousands of jobs. It seems those opposite are taking a leaf out of Extinction Rebellion's playbook and are gluing themselves to their old mates in the Greens.

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