Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the progress of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme as the centrepiece of Australia’s efforts to tackle climate change?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question, as I am sure all members and those listening to the debate today are concerned about the future of action on climate change. This week in the Australian parliament we are down to the business end of deciding what our future national action will be on climate change. For the parliament there can no longer be any delay.

Let us face the basic environmental and economic fact that we are the hottest and driest continent on earth—or one of them—and that the impacts will be felt here first and hardest of all continents on earth. Therefore, it is in our national interest that we act locally on climate change. It is in our national interest that we also act globally on climate change. It is in the planet’s interest that we do so as well. The alternative is simply unsustainable. To ignore the science also means to fail in our fiduciary duties as a nation and fail in our fiduciary duties as international leaders towards the international community and its future. It is simply unsustainable for us to turn and look our kids and grandkids in the eye and say, ‘We didn’t step up to the plate when we had a historic opportunity to do so.’

The time to act globally on climate change has come. Let us put all this into some context. It is now more than 30 years since the first World Climate Conference was called and governments were called on to act to guard against the consequences of dangerous climate change. It is 20 years since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was formed and produced its first report. It is 17 years since the international community acknowledged the importance of tackling climate change at the Rio Earth Summit and created the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. That is where the global consensus has been emerging over the last 20 to 30 years.

It has also been a long time since we first began the debate here about implementing an emissions trading scheme within Australia. Again, putting this into its general context, around the world a very large number of countries have brought in emissions trading schemes. Twenty-eight countries are already operating emissions trading schemes. There are six major economies moving towards emissions trading schemes and some 27 states in Canada and the United States are also moving towards emissions trading schemes. Here in Australia, former Senator Hill, the former Minister for the Environment, said in July this year:

Well, I started work on a potential cap and trade for Australia almost a decade ago; the political time wasn’t right then. Perhaps it’s getting closer … But basically, as with most Western nations, I think a cap and trade is the way to go.

If you look at the rest of the action that has been undertaken since then, again, it puts into historical context that the time to act on this has come and the time for further delay has, frankly, well and truly gone. In 1999 the Australian Greenhouse Office released six discussion papers on climate change and emissions trading. In 2000 and 2002 two further discussion papers were released on how we could bring about an emissions trading scheme. In 2007, the then secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, Dr Shergold, provided the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading’s Shergold report. And, of course, at the last election, the previous government also committed itself to introducing an emissions trading scheme. These are the facts.

Since the election of this government, we have sought to bring this legislation to fruition. We began in June 2008, when the CPRS green paper was released. There was the Garnaut review in September 2008 and the CPRS white paper, released in December 2008. Then in March this year, nearly nine months ago, we produced draft legislation for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. We have also introduced the renewable energy target legislation, boosting to 20 per cent the amount of electricity to be produced by renewable sources by 2020. We have had countless inquiries over a long, long time, we have had countless Senate investigations, we have had countless industry consultations, and the time for action has well and truly come. That is why we must rise to the occasion and rise to the challenge and get this deal done this week in this parliament.

This week the Australian parliament reaches the culmination of 30 years worth of science, some 10 years of development of a cap-and-trade scheme for Australia and some two years of specific work on the design character of a carbon pollution reduction scheme. This week Minister Wong will bring the proposed deal to the cabinet of Australia for its consideration. Following cabinet endorsement, the deal will be put to our—that is, the Australian Labor Party—party room so that it has whole-of-government support. Tomorrow morning, the government’s endorsed package and the draft amendments will be provided to the opposition for their final consideration.

The deal that we put to the opposition is a deal for this week. The government is focused on passing the legislation this week. The reason for that is that the clock is ticking for us all. I say to those opposite: the government is willing to extend the time available for parliamentary sittings should it be necessary to bring about a vote on the scheme this week. There are times in our national politics when all Australians require us to reach beyond the normal partisan divide and to frame an agreement in the national interest. I believe we have reached such a time in Australia. We have reached such a time in Australia this week.

I believe that climate change represents a challenge of our times to which we in the parliament must rise. So I appeal to all those on opposition benches who are people of goodwill who wish to see the passage of climate change legislation to look beyond our normal partisan divide and join with the government to see the passage of this Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme for the future. It is necessary for Australia, it is necessary for our national action, it is necessary to underpin our global action. I believe the eyes of the nation are on all of us in this House, government and opposition benches alike, this week.