Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on action the government is taking internationally to address climate change? Is the minister aware of any other views?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I thank the honourable member and I appreciate the interest he has in climate change, which is certainly an issue we on this side of the House take very seriously. Members on this side of the House will be interested to know that the inaugural meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, as it is called, which is abbreviated to AP6, was held in Sydney on 12 January. This was a ministerial meeting of ministers from Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and the United States of America.

The partners in AP6 share the objective of dealing with the problem of greenhouse emissions while at the same time trying to maintain economic growth. I think this is a very important point for people to understand. With such a large number of people around the world living in poverty, we regard it as essential that efforts be made to bring those people out of poverty through economic growth. Yet that has to be achieved at the same time as ensuring that efforts are made to mitigate the effects of the greenhouse emissions.

The AP6 initiative brought together half of the global GDP and represents around half of the world’s population and, for that matter, around half of the greenhouse emissions. All partners have now committed resources under the partnership to supporting task forces made up of the private as well as the public sectors from each of these countries to work out solutions which will not only improve economic growth prospects for the relevant countries but also address the issue of greenhouse gas emissions and help to reduce the impact of those emissions on climate change.

Are there any alternative views? The Labor Party has several alternative views. The member for Jagajaga and the member for Grayndler attacked the AP6 initiative. They thought it was not a good idea to bring together countries like China, India and the United States, none of which have targets under the Kyoto protocol, and work out ways that those countries can address the climate change issue. It seems to me quite an extraordinary and incredible point of view. But not all people in the Labor Party have such curious views. The member for Batman, for example, who I think is maturing very well in this place, praised AP6, and I praise him for praising AP6.

Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Resources, Forestry and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Martin Ferguson interjecting

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, you make good, funny jokes and you are a good man. He praised AP6 and said that it not only offered Australia an opportunity for economic growth but also ‘allows us to be part of the solution to the environmental consequences of what is happening in our region’. Exactly! Perfectly put; beautifully put! So if the Leader of the Opposition had any ticker he would admit that Kyoto was insufficient to deal with the problem of climate change. He would have an initiative that would support AP6. He would have things to say about it. He would ask questions in parliament about it. He would generate public debate about it instead of concentrating on trivial questions about matters that are being considered in other fora.