Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science and the Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change. Why is it vitally important that Australia acts now on climate change in an environmentally and economically responsible way?

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for the question. Representing the area of Far North Queensland, he knows very well the threat that climate change represents to great environmental icons like the Great Barrier Reef. Of course, it is to meet that environmental threat that the government is proposing to make this major environmental and economic reform, because the scientific consensus is very clear and that is that the impact of unabated climate change will be significant and costly to many countries and in particular this country.

The global community is meeting in Copenhagen in December to address this issue. That is less than 50 days away and the government has committed Australia to playing its part constructively in an endeavour to achieve an international agreement. As the member for Warringah opined yesterday in the opinion pages of the Australian, passing the CPRS before Copenhagen will assist the international negotiations. The CPRS will enable Australia to meet its emission reduction targets in the most economically efficient way. It is important that we pass the CPRS, as the Treasurer was indicating to the House earlier, not only to start reducing our greenhouse gas emissions but also to begin the transformation of our economy and to provide the certainty that is needed for the business community to go on and invest.

As I indicated yesterday, the government welcomes the opposition’s proposals, and we certainly look forward to seeing detailed written amendments and costings in the very near future. The government is committed to negotiating in good faith with the opposition in relation to these issues. The government’s job in these discussions is to ensure that the scheme will still add up—that is, that it tackles climate change effectively at the lowest cost to our economy, that it is environmentally credible and that it is fiscally responsible. Therefore, it is critical that the coalition’s proposals meet both of those criteria also—fiscal responsibility and environmental credibility.

Whilst the opposition have stated that their proposals will be cost neutral and capable of achieving the same level of emissions reductions as the CPRS, we need to see the detail. Proposals to exclude sectors or to provide additional support to particular industries potentially impose significant additional costs. They need to be balanced with the need to ensure environmental credibility and the fiscal integrity of the scheme. The government remains absolutely committed to passing this important legislation. There are, therefore, three important criteria by which the government will approach these negotiations and assess the proposals of the coalition. They are, as I have emphasised, that the proposals are environmentally credible, that they are fiscally responsible and also that the coalition commit to voting on the timetable that we set on this legislation this year in advance of the Copenhagen conference. These will be the fundamental criteria by which the government approaches these important negotiations.