Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We learnt a few interesting things from the Minister for the Environment and Heritage in question time today. We learnt that the rebate under the current solar panel subsidy program has been halved and it is due to end in 12 months, and he is not sure what he will do after that, and we learnt that he is off to Nairobi. Yet again, he is off to a conference. We are not quite sure what he is going to do about encouraging the use of solar panels and solar electricity in Australia, but he is off to Nairobi to talk at yet another global forum on yet another global quest.

This is a minister who, rather than stay at home and take seriously the challenge of climate change in Australia, spends most of his time out of the country. Wherever there is a conference, wherever there is an international meeting, there is the minister. The minister attends the forums where the protocol that he refuses to sign is discussed. It is quite amazing. His approach is breathtaking. As I say, back home here in Australia, the rest of us are coming to grips with the need to tackle climate change, no more so than in the minister’s home state of Western Australia. The south-west of Western Australia is internationally recognised as the climate change hotspot, probably the best example of the climate change hotspot in the world, if not in Australia. But, instead, where does the minister go to examine the effects of climate change, to discuss the policies that need to be implemented to deal with this enormous challenge? He goes international. He does not even go three hours south of Perth. On his watch, not only has he not come to grips with the challenges of climate change but not one extra drop of water has gone into the Murray, as far as I can work out. There has not been a response from the minister to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts report on the challenges of salinity—another enormous environmental challenge in Australia. There has not been one response to any of the significant issues.

As far as I can work out, whilst those on this side of the chamber recognise climate change is a serious threat, not just to our environment but also to our economy, to Senator Ian Campbell, former Vice-President Al Gore is correct: it certainly is a very inconvenient truth. Australia, as I say, is drying out quickly and, as we all know, water restrictions are in place in most places. Where is the minister for the environment on that? All these issues are a direct result of climate change. Where is he? He is in denial. He wanders the globe, talking about how he may or may not take it seriously. He will not sign up to the protocol that does take it seriously. He will not stay in Australia and address the real challenge. He did concede today that he may actually get around to tabling a document at some stage about what the Australian government may or may not be doing in its quest to address this issue. It probably will not be before he goes to Nairobi to discuss it yet again, but we will have to wait and see. That will only be after he is put under pressure.

When he is not undertaking that global quest to attend any conference on any environmental issue that he may come up with, back home in Western Australia he is on the local quest to find a seat in the House of Representatives. That brings me to the third achievement, which we did not actually learn in question time today. The other achievement that this minister really should mark down is extending Wilson Tuckey’s career. Mr Tuckey learnt that Senator Campbell was interested in moving to the lower house when Mr Prosser announced his retirement. All of a sudden, when Senator Campbell announced he might like to be the member for Forrest, 20 locals thought that that would be a bad idea and they all nominated for preselection. Then Senator Campbell thought he would have a look at the seat of O’Connor. All of a sudden, Mr Tuckey, who has been making the journey over here for quite some time, became extremely interested in extending his tenure. It would seem that he does not see Senator Campbell as an adequate replacement and certainly does not support his quest to become Treasurer of this nation. All this—the quest to find a conference anywhere, any time; find a lower house seat anywhere, any time—when he is failing to address the real challenges.

This minister has really done only two things. Senator Crossin has talked about the plastic band, and who can forget the other announcement: his great environment announcement early on in his career, ‘Let’s expand the number of coloured shopping bags.’ We have the green bag and his great environmental quest was to have the blue bag. (Time expired)