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

My question is addressed to the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Would the minister inform the House of the importance of developing clean coal technologies in addressing climate change? Is the minister aware of the criticism of the coal industry? What is the government’s response?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McMillan and recognise his very keen interest in and commitment to the coal industry and the role of coal in the generation of electricity in his own electorate. World demand for electricity is projected to double by 2030. That growth will be driven in large measure by countries like China and India as they continue their rapid economic growth and as their citizens seek to improve their living standards. China and India are 78 per cent and 69 per cent respectively dependent on coal for electricity generation. Each of them has substantially greater coal reserves than Australia. Neither of them is blessed with significant alternative energy resources and the consequence is that, for economic and energy security reasons, both countries will continue to be heavy users of coal in the years ahead.

Australia is a major exporter of coal to the world. In addressing climate change, we must build on our natural advantages and respond in ways that do not threaten the economic prosperity or the job security of Australians. The Labor Party seems to be prepared to ignore these fundamental realities, but we are not. One of the greatest contributions Australia can make to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions is to help develop the technologies the world will need to clean up coal. China and India will continue to use coal for the bulk of their energy needs. It is only by cleaning up that coal fired generation capacity that they will be able to have economic growth, which they are entitled to, and energy growth, which they need, and at the same time reduce the growth in greenhouse gas emissions. China is the fastest-growing coal consumer in the world. It does not use coal as efficiently as it might. Leaving aside near zero emission clean coal technologies like sequestration, China has a long way to go.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Crean interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hotham is warned!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The thermal efficiency of a coal fired power station globally is 30 per cent. In the OECD, it is 38 per cent. In China, it is 27 per cent. There is enormous potential for China to improve its energy efficiency and reduce the rapid growth in its greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of our $2 billion comprehensive climate change strategy, the government is investing more than $470 million in the effort to promote clean coal and carbon sequestration technologies: $170 million through the low emissions technology demonstration fund, $22 million to support the relevant cooperative research centres, $19 million through projects under the AP6 Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, and, of course, as announced in January by the Prime Minister, the China-Australia clean coal initiative.

What is the Labor-Greens alliance threatening to do with coal technology?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well may they laugh. They can laugh away. I hope the constituents of the member for Hunter see him laughing, because the laugh will be on him when the constituents of the member for Hunter realise what the member for Kingsford Smith has in mind for them.

The Greens policy is to cease coal exports within three years—effectively shut down the coal mining industry, devastate the economy and sacrifice thousands of miners’ jobs, their families and their communities. And for what? For nothing. China would simply buy its coal from somewhere else or use its own coal, of which it has vastly more in reserve than we do—and that coal is more inefficient in terms of carbon emissions than our own. What is Labor’s policy? It supports clean coal, it says, but it sets an arbitrary target of 60 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050. It refuses to say what this will cost in dollars or jobs. I would ask Mr Rudd to reveal the analysis underpinning Labor’s 60 per cent target. What will the impact be on our economy or on Australian jobs?

When the member for Kingsford Smith was asked what Labor’s climate change policy would cost, he said, ‘We don’t know what paying more means.’ When asked about the cost of Labor’s policy on coal jobs, the member for Kingsford Smith said that it was a hypothetical question. The member for Hunter might tell him that it is not hypothetical for his constituents. Then in the Newcastle Herald he said:

The automatic expansion of the coal industry as we have seen in the Hunter region ... over the last decade is a thing of the past.

That is not a hypothetical answer, and the workers’ jobs it threatens are real. The member for Kingsford Smith’s remarks mean one of two things. Either there will be no new coalmines—that has a familiar Labor ring about it—which means that the coal industry is doomed to die because, as every mine is exhausted and closed, no new mine will take its place, or he is simply saying that we should not mine any more coal than we are doing now, that we should put a cap on our coal production and on our exports. To what end? All that will happen is our competitors will rub their hands with glee.

The government is committed to meeting the greenhouse challenge, to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and to helping the world reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but doing so in a way which preserves the jobs and the economy that the Australian community depends upon.

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Could my learned friend the minister table the affidavit he was reading from?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not think that is a point of order.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the member for Wills wishes to raise a serious point of order, he will do so in the proper manner.

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Will the minister table the document he was just reading?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Was the minister reading from a confidential document?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.