Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister and is about his flawed emissions trading scheme, which threatens to destroy thousands of Australian jobs while doing little or nothing to protect the environment. Is the Prime Minister aware of warnings from the renewable generator Envirogen that design flaws in his scheme risk destroying 100 current and 300 new jobs in electorates including Flynn, Capricornia, Dobell and Macarthur?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. It goes to the question of how we deal with the challenge of climate change and, most particularly, how we deal with the future of the emissions trading scheme and how we deal, in turn, with the impacts of the emissions trading scheme, assuming it passes the Senate, in the real economy.

On the question of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, the government’s plan is clear—that is, we believe in getting the balance right between serving the interests of our firms, our industries and our jobs, on the one hand, and doing the right thing by climate change on the other. This is a difficult task. We accept that fact, we accept that challenge and we are getting on with it. What the honourable Leader of the Opposition fails to appreciate is that failure to act on climate change actually destroys jobs in agriculture, tourism and elsewhere in the economy.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. What the honourable Prime Minister does not appreciate is that he has got to answer the question.

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

The Leader of the Opposition must come to his point of order. The Prime Minister has the call.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member refers to the impact of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme on the future of renewable energies in Australia. The whole function of introducing a carbon price into the economy is to encourage the development of renewable energy industries and, in turn, to generate further employment from it.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why are you putting the people out of work? Why are they losing their jobs?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the honourable Leader of the Opposition interjects about a scheme on which he campaigned to unseat the member for Bradfield as Leader of the Opposition, again I suggest to him that he should actually use some consistency in his approach. What the country expects of a government is consistency of approach on climate change. What the country expects is an approach which says, ‘If you fail to act on climate change it destroys jobs in agriculture and tourism—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. We do not expect consistency; we expect relevance.

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

Order! There is no point of order. The Prime Minister is responding to the question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know why the Leader of the Opposition would not expect consistency, because reflecting on his own position there has not been one element of it. He used climate change and emissions trading politically to unseat the member for Bradfield as Leader of the Opposition when he said he was all for it and the member for Bradfield was all against it. Now that he is under threat by the member for Higgins he has changed his tune. Consistency is important.

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

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order: relevance. The question was about destroying renewable energy jobs now—today.

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

Order! The Prime Minister will respond to the question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy that the member for Flinders intervened, because I seem to recall last year when we introduced the government’s green paper, and then later our white paper, on emissions trading the honourable member for Flinders said something along the lines of: ‘They have just copied our policy.’ I appreciate the intervention from the honourable member for Flinders. He may be surprised to note that we actually pay some attention to what he says, because there has been a little more consistency—not a lot—in what he says compared with the Leader of the Opposition.

On the impact of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme on employment, we are concerned to act because the job-destroying impact of climate change over time in agriculture in the Murray-Darling and in tourism across Australia will have a profound effect on the entire economy. Furthermore, by introducing a carbon price into the economy, we encourage the development of job-creating renewable industries across Australia. That is why we believe we have got the balance right in doing so. For example, on the employment impact of climate change, look at the number of people employed in agriculture in the Murray-Darling: 90,000 Australians. The Murray-Darling is a stressed river system because of overuse on the one hand and the impact of climate change on water going into the system on the other.

I draw the honourable Leader of the Opposition’s attention to what happens over time when you do not act appropriately on climate change. For example, modelling has been provided through the Garnaut review which indicates that, if nothing were done on climate change, the value of agricultural production in the Murray-Darling Basin would shrink by 12 per cent by 2030 and by 49 per cent by 2050. There are 90,000 Australians employed in the Murray-Darling. If you go to tourism, the same applies there. I draw the honourable member’s attention to this fact in the renewable energy sector as well: Treasury modelling suggests that, under global action on climate change, most sectors of the Australian economy will grow and, in fact, many emissions-intensive industries will maintain or improve their competitiveness. Furthermore, if you look at the impact on the renewable energy sector, Treasury modelling says that the renewable energy sector will grow by 30 times its current size, creating thousands of jobs—an uncomfortable fact for those opposite. Furthermore, the International Energy Agency estimates that the additional investment in renewable energy by 2050 will be US$45 trillion, creating tens, hundreds of thousands and millions of jobs around the world.

Therefore, the overall impact of introducing a carbon price is that over time we will see job generation coming out of the renewable energy sector. It is also necessary in order to underpin continued job generation in traditional sectors such as agriculture and tourism. This is the jobs dimension to what we do and I suggest that the honourable Leader of the Opposition show some consistency for the first time.