Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and Minister for Industry and Innovation. Will the minister update the House on international efforts to tackle dangerous climate change? How does Australia compare with the rest of the world and why is it important that the debate on tackling climate change is guided by facts and not fiction?

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

I thank my friend the member for Banks for his question, because today the Climate Commission has released a new and independent assessment of international action on climate change. It concludes that every major economy is tackling climate change. No fewer than 90 countries, representing 90 per cent of the world's economy, have put programs in place to cut greenhouse gas emissions. From next year, the report finds, around 850 million people will live in countries or states with a carbon price set by an emissions trading scheme. Of course, the international community has committed to binding emissions reduction obligations to take effect from 2020, and countries are starting to move to that position. Notwithstanding all of these facts and this new independent report by the Climate Commission, the Leader of the Opposition is still on the record as saying: 'There is no sign, no sign whatsoever, that the rest of the world is going to do things like introduce carbon taxes or emissions trading schemes.' That flies completely in the face of all the facts and all of the measures that countries around the world are taking. You have to ask yourself: is it ignorance or is it pure mendacity that we are dealing with here?

Whatever it is, it is a virus that is infecting the coalition. Yesterday the member for Hughes—I think it was—for example, cited figures from a Sydney high school to attack the carbon price and, within an hour of question time concluding, the school's deputy principal had this to say: 'We know nothing about it. I don't know where they got those numbers.' When subsequently questioned by the Financial Review, the member for Hughes's office had to say they did not know where the figures came from. They did not know, but the figures were put up in question time.

Yesterday the opposition also tried to mislead over the carbon price impact on the electricity bill of a meat-processing facility called Australian Country Choice. The carbon price impact—this is a fact—would equate to less than one cent for every kilogram of beef that is produced from that facility. Coles are currently selling a Country Choice steak for $19.48 a kilo, and less than one cent of that is attributable to the carbon price impact. This anti-carbon-price crusade run by the coalition is littered with nothing but deceit and fraudulent claims. You should try telling the truth for once.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar is warned!

Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. Minister, in your answer you mentioned the meat industry. Can you outline for the House what opportunities the carbon price creates for the meat industry?

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

The meat industry does have a lot of opportunities, under the carbon pricing arrangements, to improve its efficiency, its productivity and its competitiveness. With simple technology—for example, by covering a settlement pond at a meatworks—methane gas can be captured and used to generate electricity and potentially remove an abattoir that has a carbon price liability from that liability altogether. If the methane is used to generate electricity, they can generate their own power and even sell that electricity back into the grid. One abattoir that I am aware of is examining technology known as a biodigester. The waste products go in one end, methane is used to generate electricity, and fertiliser and drinkable water are produced as a result.

The carbon price has stimulated the investigation of all of these technologies, and the government is providing competitive grants to assist the meat industry to put them into place. They will drive efficiency improvements; they will cut costs. Compare these facts with the fictions from the coalition, particularly Senator Barnaby Joyce's ridiculous claim that a lamb roast will cost $100 under the carbon price. The facts are that the meat industry will work well with the government to reduce their emissions and cut their energy bills.