Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that the Government is taking real and practical action to reduce emissions while protecting our economy, jobs and investment; and

(2) welcomes that the Government's plan is driven by technology not taxes, and the plan is working, for instance:

(a) we beat the 2020 target by 459 million tonnes;

(b) updated forecasts show Australia is on track to meet and beat its 2030 Paris target; and

(c) over the past two years, our position against our 2030 target has improved by 639 million tonnes—equivalent to taking all of Australia's 14.7 million cars off the road for 15 years.

When I think about the foundations of liberalism, I think about the importance of the empowerment of the individual—the economic and social democratisation of power to unleash the full potential of the 25 million citizens of this country. But we also need to make sure that we steward and take responsibility for our environment to ensure that the inheritance that our children and grandchildren and their successors receive is as good if not better than we received.

That is why we as Liberals have always taken a strong view on the importance of environmental stewardship. I remind members that the foundation of the Australian Greenhouse Office occurred under the Howard government. Numerous environmental groups were founded under the Fraser government. The Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments have also continued this important tradition because we believe that we should steward, for the next generation, an environment that's as healthy and prosperous as the one we inherited.

We know that the challenge of rising greenhouse gas emissions means that, as one of the nations that have harnessed the potential of our natural endowment, we need to repurpose that and refocus that so we have not just an industrial revolution in the past but a clean revolution in the future. We want to see Australia's economy continue to grow, continue to clean and continue to provide the jobs and opportunities for the next generation of Australians.

We have a very clear plan about achieving that. Under the Abbott government, we ratified the Paris Agreement, and, critically, as part of that process we committed Australia to a net zero emissions target in the second half of the century. Right now, we are focused on what we need to do to achieve that target and, where possible, to bring it forward—not just because it's in line with the international community, though that's obviously an important part of it, but because it goes to the heart of who we are as a country. I sometimes hear people say, 'Australian emissions are only a small percentage of global emissions; what does it matter?' And my response is always the same: if you as an individual litter, of course that is only a small share of the litter of the nation. But the whole principle of liberalism is the idea of empowerment through responsibility. Having 25 million people take responsibility for themselves should be the principle by which we wish to govern a nation—responsibility, responsibility, responsibility. So, while we encourage other countries to follow our lead, we still have a responsibility to do what we ourselves know to be right.

We've obviously set out a target, under the Paris Agreement, for the second half of the century. We're now seeking to implement it. But, critically, we're not doing it in the same way that so many other countries are doing it and that those on the other side have sought to do it. We're not trying to do it through taxes, because we know taxes don't work; they only work as a mechanism by which government can raise more revenue for itself, rather than targeting measures and driving technology to be part of the solution. As many people have often remarked, the use of horses didn't end because we ran out of horses or we ran out of places to put their droppings or leavings. It was because we innovated new technology, like cars. And the next generation of cars will be part of our transport based solution to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions while continuing to drive the Australian economy.

Renewables are a critical part of the discussion about moving from the traditions of fossil fuels to new energy generation. The investment we're making in Snowy 2.0 is a critical part of it being the battery of the nation. And we should not remove from the table important energy generation which can be a critical part of a competitive, low-carbon baseload future, such as nuclear power. Anybody who wants to remove that from the discussion is saying they don't actually care about climate change, they don't actually care about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and they don't actually care about the future jobs of Australians.

Our record, in taking this approach, is unambiguously clear. We smashed our Kyoto-era targets by 459 million tonnes because we brought the future forward. Australia's emissions have fallen faster than the G20 average. We've seen emissions drop, between 2005 and 2018, by 13 per cent. By comparison, so many other countries, including New Zealand, can only promise targets as long as they exclude their sectors. If we want agriculture to reduce its emissions profile, or transport, energy generation, land use and the rest, technology is going to be the solution. At every step, the Morrison government is about building the future of the nation, and its competitive future.

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