Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present a petition on behalf of my constituents concerning climate change.

The petition read as follows—

This petition of concerned people of the electorate of Fisher draws to the attention of the House the severe and urgent threat that climate change poses to the health, well-being and security of all people around the world, particularly our poorest and most vulnerable neighbours. We remind the House that Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are the highest per person among wealthy nations while our emissions reduction targets are among the weakest.

We therefore ask the House to do all in its power to protect communities in Australia and our region from the harmful impacts of climate change -such as more sever heat, extreme and unpredictable weather and rising seas by: - committing to deeper and more urgent reductions of our greenhouse emissions; - developing a plan to ensure Australia achieves zero net greenhouse emissions well before 2050, and supporting families and communities affected by the transition towards renewable energy and more sustainable land use: - providing additional assistance to help our poorest neighbours adapt to the harmful impacts of climate change

from 1,051 citizens.

Petition received.

I appreciate and respect the views of the 1,053 signatories to the climate change petition, which was provided to me on 2 August 2017 by constituents Bob Cullen from the Caloundra Catholic Church, Wendy Loury from the Caloundra Uniting Church Justice Group and Reverend Ray Barraclogh from the Anglican Church.

In a perfect world, we would all like to have low emissions and clean green energy. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I am sure that there is no-one in this House who would like to see environmental damage. Australia, under the Turnbull government, is on track to meet its 2030 emissions target of reducing our emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below our 2005 levels. The government is creating new renewable energy generation and storage with the 2,000-megawatt Snowy Hydro 2.0 and other pumped hydro projects in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales. But the reality is that currently renewable energy does not provide the base-load, on-demand power that our communities need and that our industries need. There are 900,000 Australian workers who work in the manufacturing sector. They rely on base-load electricity. My concern is that, if we continue to go down this route of renewable energies at all cost, like they have done in South Australia and Victoria, we will see a great many situations where we simply won't be able to put the air conditioners on; we won't be able to put the lights on. Pensioners won't be able to keep themselves warm. It is a terrible, terrible indictment on our community.

Let's look at what is happening in South Australia, for instance. Over the next summer break, over the Christmas period, they are having to introduce diesel-powered generators because of the renewable energy policies of that Labor state government, which will burn 80,000 litres of diesel per hour. That's the equivalent of 1,920 litres of diesel each and every day. At a cost of $1.30 a litre, that equates to $2.5 million a day of diesel generation. That's the most dirty, environmentally unfriendly way of creating electricity, all in the name of trying to create clean, green energy. It makes absolutely no sense.

This government is about providing affordable and reliable energy. We are absolutely, 100 per cent, methodological agnostics. We don't care how we provide it. What we do care about is providing economical, affordable and reliable energy for all Australians. (Time expired)