Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. Will the Minister update the House on the government’s commitment to a vibrant, renewable energy sector to help Australia tackle climate change?

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 Throsby for her question and I know that she has an acute interest in this issue, particularly in relation to the development of renewable energy technologies in her electorate. The fact is that the government is committed to a vibrant renewable energy sector to help Australia tackle the challenges of climate change. We do that in the context of modelling from Treasury which shows that we can take action to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution whilst continuing to grow our economy. We understand that there are significant opportunities for economic growth and for employment that lie in having a healthy renewable energy sector. The government has made a number of significant commitments to this comprehensive approach. We are committed to a 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020. In this 2008-09 period, we are committed to the largest ever Commonwealth investment in solar power, with more solar panels going onto more rooftops than any other year in Australia’s history, and we are committed to introducing a $300 million low interest green loan to make existing homes more energy and water efficient. We have a comprehensive approach to ensuring that we have a robust energy efficiency and renewable energy sector because we know that the challenge of climate change is the most significant one that we face. The Leader of the Opposition says that he also wanted to take action—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Hume is warned, on behalf of all the rest.

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

before the last election. We know that he wanted to ratify the Kyoto protocol but he could not convince his cabinet colleagues. The reason he could not convince his cabinet colleagues was an innate sense of scepticism amongst some of his colleagues at that time which lives on in the Liberal Party and in the opposition that sits opposite.

I noticed the member for Goldstein—the member that has responsibilities for assisting the opposition’s emission trading policy—on radio this morning, when he was accusing the government of trying to silence debate, saying on the government’s view, ‘If you question climate change, you’re a sceptic.’ This reminded me of an article in the Australian Financial Review called ‘The Player’, where the member for Goldstein’s views were described as those of someone who saw climate change as a ‘leftist fad’ that will divert resources away from other more needy areas of the economy. In fact, he was quoted as saying that ‘after the fall of communism, it’—global warming—’has become a cause celebre for the left’. He went on to say that he had studied the data and, as someone with a reasonable grasp of statistics, is yet to be convinced. He said:

I found that some of the same scientists who in the 1970s were saying we should prepare for an ice age were leading the charge on global warming.

So much for the scientific consensus on climate change, and so much for the advice from our own independent scientific bodies like the CSIRO or the International Panel on Climate Change. Let us put it this way: if it looks like a sceptic, if it talks like a sceptic and if it walks like a sceptic, then it is a sceptic. But let me say to the member for Goldstein: if you do not believe that climate change is real, I think the Leader of the Opposition does; if you do not believe that humans are contributing to it, I believe the Leader of the Opposition does. It follows as a consequence that the view that is held in this House by this government is that we need to act resolutely on this matter and that the sooner we take that action the better prepared we will be. But on the other side of the House they still do not get it; they still do not get the need for a real renewable energy sector in this country, and they still do not get the need for a comprehensive approach to climate change, because scepticism is alive and well in the hearts and minds of the Liberal Party and it is time the Leader of the Opposition took some action to deal with it.