Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, why is passing the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation critical to give business the certainty it needs to invest in the future?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for his question. It is a very important question because, each and every year we delay, the cost of responding to climate change gets larger and larger. We on this side of the House very clearly understand the economic cost of delay. The economic cost of delay puts a greater burden on the Australian economy, on Australian business and on Australian workers and on subsequent generations. We understand the urgency of dealing with dangerous climate change and we on this side of the House know that, the earlier we act, the more we can lessen those costs in the long term, the more we will lessen those burdens on Australian business and lessen those burdens on Australian households that are imposed on them by dangerous climate change. But, unfortunately, there are many on that side of the House who do not even accept the science of dangerous climate change.

We have extremists on that side of the House, dinosaurs on that side of the House, who do not accept the science or the economics of dangerous climate change. Apparently, in the party room today there were 10 speakers, six from the Liberal Party, denying the science and denying the need to act. We have already seen the member for O’Connor put up his hand and indicate that he is a dinosaur, we have the member for Tangney over there putting up his hand and I think we have the member for Mackellar over there. Who are the other three? Are they going to identify themselves in the House today? We have one on the front bench, have we? We have several on the front bench, apparently, because it is okay for the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate to question the science of climate change. There are clearly many dinosaurs on that side of the House, and most particularly in the Senate, who do not understand the most basic aspect of economics: to protect our future prosperity, to protect our country, to protect our sustainability, we need to deal with dangerous climate change.

This is understood in most countries of the world and, in most countries of the world, it is understood by both sides of politics. When we go to international meetings we sit there with leaders from conservative parties throughout the world who absolutely understand the importance of addressing dangerous climate change, who are willing to sit down and protect subsequent generations and deal with it and who clearly outline their support for the science. But it appears, just like it was with the economic stimulus, there is a hard core of extremists in the conservative parties in this country who do not understand the importance of the economics or the science of climate change.

We do have one international organisation. They are not known radicals, they are not communist members of the G20, but they do understand the risk and the cost of dangerous climate change. It is that radical organisation the International Energy Agency—a very radical body, stacked with communists and other radicals from around the world who understand the cost of climate change. This is what they had to say about the economic cost of climate change and why it is urgent that we deal with it: ‘As every day passes it gets more urgent and, as every year passes, it gets more urgent.’ But these basic empirical facts are lost on those members of the Liberal and National parties who spoke in the party room today, opposing the science of climate change. This is what the International Energy Agency had to say. They found that every year of delay means that more intense carbon reductions will be required down the track, which, common sense tells you, come at a higher cost. For every year of delay, before moving to a more sustainable emissions path, an extra US$500 billion is added to the global bill for mitigating climate change—a global bill that is already estimated at US$10.5 trillion over the period 2010 to 2030. And, of course, that only applies for one to three years. The costs are even greater if we do not act against dangerous climate change.

We have also seen the report from the World Wildlife Fund ‘Climate change 2’, which sets out the fact that we need urgent investment to transform our economy. Now, here is the immediate rub. If we do not take a positive decision on the CPRS, what we are going to do is hold up millions and millions of dollars of investment in our economy. Action to delay the CPRS in the Senate is going to starve our businesses of future investment and it will starve new industries of vital job creation investment. So there is a lot on the line and it goes to the core not just of sustainability of our climate but to the very core of our economic prosperity. But none of these things are understood by the 10 dinosaurs in the party room who spoke up today and denied the climate change science. Those dinosaurs are absolutely intent on smashing our national economic interest in the Senate of this parliament. We on this side of the House will fight for the CPRS every inch of the way, because it goes to the core of our national interest—our national economic interest and our national environmental interest.