Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We see an absolute crisis of government leadership on this issue. We have ministers putting different propositions forward for the Australian public to consider and we have senators in this debate representing quite different and diverse positions from those of government ministers. Let me take you through some of them before I get to the substantive issues that I want to talk about.

We have the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Mr Ian Macfarlane, declaring that he now has an open mind about the establishment of a domestic emissions trading scheme prior to a global system being set up. In question time today, when Senator Minchin was asked that particular question, he said the government had no intention of going it alone and setting up an emissions trading scheme unless it is in a global system which everyone has already signed up for. Confused? I think Senator Minchin is being very clear and I think Mr Macfarlane is being very clear, yet they are saying two very different things.

What happened last time the world realised that we needed to address this environmental situation globally? We saw Australia walk away from Kyoto, an international attempt to address greenhouse gas emissions, and we have seen the environmental consequences of that. We saw Australia not want to be part of a global system, yet here is the government now saying that the only thing they will ever sign up to is a global system. None of us say that the Kyoto protocol is perfect, but it was the first serious attempt by the world to engage the whole of the globe in a system to resolve the issues of climate change and pollution that are affecting this planet. The first time that the international community seriously takes that on we have a government that simply walk away. What is their excuse for doing nothing now? ‘We’re not going to sign on to anything that isn’t a global system.’ They had their chance then, with Kyoto, and they failed to step up to the plate; they are simply failing to step up to it now.

Then we had Senator Abetz talking in question time today about CO emissions from bushfires. We acknowledge that is real. He talked about how these are more than the total greenhouse impact from every vehicle in this country, with the clear implication that the emissions from energy production and vehicle usage really are a second-order issue. As this federal government is addicted to blaming everybody else, he said if only the states would fix up their park management processes we would not have to worry about those CO emissions from bushfires and therefore the second-order issues—and I say this was Senator Abetz’s implication—of energy generation and vehicle transport would not need to be addressed. Then we saw yesterday the very confused message coming from the Prime Minister.

What we see here is a crisis of leadership. We have government members that are not on message, because they do not know what the message ought to be. Not very long ago they did not take this issue at all seriously. They were sceptics and they were happy to run with the odd scientists here and there who said: ‘Well, look, it may not be as bad as they say it’s going to be. Don’t believe the bulk of the scientific community. We can always find someone who will say that it will not really be as bad as they say it’s going to be.’ The government was comfortable pushing that line down the throats of Australians.

The problem for this government now is that Australians have woken up and are far ahead of it on this issue. They can see the overwhelming scientific evidence that says we should have been acting on these things a long time ago. But even if we did not act on it a long time ago—and this government stands condemned for doing so little and not being part of a global solution like Kyoto in the first place—we ought to start doing it now. But again the government’s response is, ‘Let’s wait and see what the global community comes up with and everything will be all right.’

Then we had Senator Parry’s contribution. If he did not reinforce that the government is sceptical about this issue I do not know what other contribution could, because he said that climate change is an emotive issue and it is a moving issue. Senator Parry is dead wrong. It is a scientific issue and the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence says that there is a serious problem that has to be addressed and it has to be addressed now.

The systems that we are talking about to redress the terrible pollution that has occurred over the last 100 years on this planet will be long-term solutions. Unless they start to be put into place now, we will never find the solution. People on the government side say, ‘Let’s wait, because we are not one of the great polluters.’ That is what Senator Parry tells us. ‘We don’t have to worry. It’s China we have to worry about, so unless China is going to do something, let’s not bother. We are small fry.’ This is in absolute contradiction to the argument that they run that we need a global system. ‘We are not going to do anything until China does something. We do not need to, because we are a small polluter,’ according to the government. ‘China is a big polluter and going to be the biggest polluter’—and that is probably true—‘but, unless they are going to do something, being a small polluter we do not need to do anything. But we want a global system.’

One thing is for sure: it will be a long time before you get every country on the globe to agree to a common emissions trading scheme. Unless developed countries pick up their responsibilities, develop these schemes and put them in place as models for the rest of the world and engage constructively with the rest of the world, we will not have a solution.

This government, through a crisis in leadership, is letting every Australian down. Every Australian is being let down by this government’s sceptical approach, even though now they try to tell us that they are realists about it. I am not so sure. I think that it is a little bit more poll driven than reality driven. The only reality that this Prime Minister ever finds is in the polls. When the polls tell him to do something, he will act. The clever politician that he is, he will react to the polls. He is not reacting to climate change; he is reacting to the polls. (Time expired)