Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. What action is the government taking to enhance energy efficiency?

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. Energy efficiency is a key plank in the government’s comprehensive approach to tackling dangerous climate change following 12 years of neglect by the Liberal-National Party coalition in seriously addressing this issue at all. The carbon pollution reduction scheme is the centrepiece of the government’s approach, but it must be complemented by measures which remove obstacles to the uptake of energy efficiency, particularly through the early years of adjustment. Up until now, energy efficiency, sometimes called the ‘low-hanging fruit’, has been fragmented and uncoordinated at the national level, a legacy of the failure of those opposite to address this issue. International Energy Agency indicators show that Australia’s improvements in energy efficiency between 1990 and 2005 lagged well behind other OECD countries. It is a test of any government to see whether they take up the opportunities to pick that low-hanging fruit, but for 12 years we saw nothing.

Importantly, action on energy efficiency lowers the cost of reducing carbon pollution and has additional benefits for energy security for business and also for cost-of-living pressures. The government’s green paper provides a commitment to assist Australian households to take practical action on reducing their energy use, saving on energy bills and making a fair dinkum contribution to tackling climate change. I have been undertaking a series of roundtables with the community, NGOs, business groups and industry on practical action and solutions for households. The messages coming through loud and clear are that there are plenty of solutions around. We are listening to those messages and they will inform the household assistance measures the government will detail as we move towards a carbon pollution reduction scheme white paper.

This government is already helping households make smarter choices on energy-efficient products such as televisions. We are raising the profile of renewable energy with some 1,600 schools around Australia already having registered to become solar schools. In the first year of the Rudd Labor government there will be more Commonwealth funding for solar power and more solar installations than in any year in Australia’s history. I have got to say that the opposition has been completely caught out and exposed on this issue—and it has been confronted with the facts. When you get past all the stunts from the opposition, from the member for Flinders, here are the facts. On 21 May the member for Flinders said in relation to solar panels:

… few people, if any, are signing on to new solar panel contracts.

The fact is that, in that same week, we received 445 applications, the third highest number in the program’s history. On 16 June the Leader of the Opposition said:

There are few new customers signing up for solar panels.

That was the week when we received 565 applications, another new record for applications for solar panels. And so it goes on. The fact is that, when it comes to climate change and those important issues that attach to it, the opposition never paid much attention. In fact, they spent 12 years ignoring climate change—and we know that they are still ignoring the evidence. I noticed that an anonymous coalition MP was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying:

… 70 per cent either does not believe in climate change or is plain sceptical.

Seventy per cent of opposition members is a high figure, but I guess it explains why they have had some 15 different positions on the carbon pollution reduction scheme. That opposition MP went on to say at the time of the backflip on emissions last year:

We were staring at an electoral abyss. We had to pretend we cared.

Professor Garnaut has introduced us to the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ in relation to climate change, but I think it is time we introduced the Australian public to the coalition’s dilemma on climate change: they are still sceptical and now they have to pretend they care. I do not know who that anonymous MP was. Was it the member for Wentworth? Was it the member for Flinders? Was it the Leader of the Opposition? Was it Senator Minchin? I suppose we could ask them. But, if we asked them, we would get four different answers—and two of them would involve nuclear. At the end of the day, pretending to care is not a sufficient basis for constructing real policy on dealing with climate change because the Australian community does care and the Rudd Labor government will deliver climate change solutions to them.