Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to his previous answer in which he said he would release his climate plan 'soon enough'. The minister for regionalisation has said with regard to the government's secret deal on net zero, 'The first rule of fight club is not to talk about fight club.' Don't Australians deserve more respect than this? Apart from a pay rise for the minister of resources, what is Australia's climate policy, and why don't the Australian people have a right to know?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They have every right to know, and we set it out very clearly at the last election and every day since. And, as a result, emission reductions have fallen by 20 per cent on 2005 levels. I said we would meet and beat our 2030 target, and, indeed, we will meet and beat our 2030 target, and I'm looking forward to setting that out at the Glasgow COP26. We will set out very clearly both our commitments in relation to 2050 and our commitments in relation to 2030, which we took to the last election.

At the last election there was one issue: it was a question of 45 per cent emissions reduction, which was put forward by the Labor Party, and 26 to 28 per cent put forward by the Liberal and National parties. That's what we took to the last election. The Australian people rejected Labor's policies because Labor could not explain their policy, they had no plan to achieve their policies, they couldn't say what they cost, and nothing has changed since that time. Labor still don't have a plan as to how they're going to meet their targets. They don't even have a target for 2030! I recall that when the government came to first be elected we made very clear, in 2013, that we would commit to the 2020 target. That was seven years from that date. We're eight years from 2030, and the opposition can't even make a commitment about a 2030 target. Well, not only did we make a commitment before elected; we met that commitment and we beat that commitment.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance: the question went solely to the government's own policy and plan for net zero by 2050 and whether the Australian people deserve to see what that plan is. The Prime Minister has spoken about the campaign where they opposed net zero by 2050—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, we won't debate the matter.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister isn't being relevant to the question.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll call the Prime Minister and listen carefully. I am giving a bit more tolerance given the other aspects—the nature of the question and some of the other descriptors in it.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like I said very clearly, a government that I lead was not going to support a net zero by 2050 target unless we could detail a plan to achieve it.

Opposition members interjecting—

Those opposite scoff at this.

Opposition members interjecting—

Those opposite scoff at this. What they don't understand is that people in rural and regional Australia and right across the country deserve that: they deserve to know what the plan is, how it impacts them and how we're going to achieve it. And that's what we'll be setting out very, very clearly, just as we set that out for our 2030 target at the last election. The Labor Party just signed themselves up to a net zero by 2050 without any consideration, without any plan, without any understanding of the costs, and they were happy to let Australians pay for it. That's not our approach. Australians will see very clearly our plan for how we will meet our targets, and we will be very faithful to the commitments we made at the last election, where we said what our 2030 targets would be. Those opposite couldn't explain their policies. We could. That's why Australians could trust the Liberals and the Nationals with an economic plan that enables us to meet our emissions reduction targets. They know that both parties in our coalition—which have, rightly, wrestled with this issue and, rightly, considered carefully the implications and the costs and the issues that will need to be dealt— (Time expired)