Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, representing the Minister for Climate Change and Water. What is the impact of climate change on drought and on our water supplies? What is the government’s response to this issue?

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 Wakefield for his question. The impact of climate change, with increasing temperatures over time, on drought and on our water supplies is real. It underlines why comprehensive action to tackle climate change is a priority for the Rudd Labor government. The Liberal Party, with its palpable lack of direction, consistency and conviction, shows how ill-equipped it is to deal with these issues day by day. Barely nine months into the life of the government we have given Australia a seat at the global negotiating table, with the ratification of Kyoto. We have committed to reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 60 per cent of the 2000 levels. We have set out the government’s preferred design for the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. We are committed to ensuring that at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply comes from renewable energy by 2020 and we are committed to a substantial forward agenda on cost-effective energy efficiency improvements as a key plank of our response to reducing Australia’s carbon pollution at least cost.

I have to say that this comes at a time when we have had 11 of the 13 hottest years on record, evaporation rates in the Murray-Darling Basin are at a very, very high level and, regrettably, inflows are very low. That is a real agenda, they are significant commitments, they are real targets and they form part of a strategic approach to tackling climate change—an approach that is economically responsible, environmentally effective and based on science. Perhaps the best way to understand this approach after nine months is to compare it to the previous government’s record over 12 years: 12 years of denying the climate change science and 12 years of ignoring the evidence. And that is not the full story.

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on the basis of relevance. I do not recall anything in the question that asked the minister to comment on the policies of other governments or parties. I thought he had done a pretty good job up till then. He may as well sit down.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for O’Connor will resume his seat. The minister was asked to relate climate change to drought and water supply.

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

That is not the full story, because, as we saw in the Sydney Morning Herald of 28 July, not only did the previous government spend 12 years denying the science, they then spent about 12 months pretending to care. This was what an anonymous coalition MP said about their colleagues:

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

That was the same MP who said:

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

The problem with pretending to care—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will resume his seat. When the House comes to order the minister will have the call.

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

As I was saying, the problem with pretending to care is that it is hard to be convincing to anyone. No better example of this was in evidence than last night when the Leader of the Opposition was interviewed on Lateline and was asked a very straightforward question:

Do you accept what’s happening to the Lower Lakes and right up the Murray is also related to climate change?

This is the answer from the Leader of the Opposition:

Well, no I don’t.

He went on to say:

What’s happening at the moment in the Murray-Darling Basin is a consequence of two things: mismanagement of the entire system for almost 100 years, and also the worst drought in 100 years. And it is quite wrong for people to suggest that what we’re seeing at the moment is a consequence of climate change.

Following that response, the Leader of the Opposition was presented with the views of Australian scientists, including from the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. He then went on to say:

Climate change in so far as the impacts that we have seen may well be contributing to some of it, but essentially what we see is a product, as I say, of drought and mismanagement.

That was two positions in two minutes as the opposition leader went on to talk about mismanagement.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Under standing order 76, ‘Uranium Pete’ is surely struggling for relevance.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The honourable member will resume his seat. I remind him that standing order 76 does not apply to questions; it applies to debate. The minister will get back to the question and commence to conclude his answer.

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

Can I simply say: 12 years of neglect and denial, then 12 months of pretending to care and two minutes to change position. We do not have to look very far, because they had 12 years to take action on water and there was not one single drop of water returned to the Murray-Darling Basin as a consequence of environmental flows. And now the opposition leader, in the space of two minutes, goes from ‘no’ to ‘maybe’. This is what happens to a Liberal Party that pretends to care about climate change: a leader who cannot hold the same position on climate change from Lateline to Lateline Business.

I tell you the Rudd Labor government do care about climate change. We do care about the challenge of water and we acknowledge that it is a serious difficulty for families and irrigators and other communities in the basin. We also recognise the views and evidence presented by our leading scientists and we take them seriously. We have a clear policy agenda in place to deal with these issues and we will deliver to the Australian people.