Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If climate change is our greatest problem, as Senator Wortley concluded in her remarks, why is the Labor Party policy so completely vacuous? It is astonishing. I listened as Senator Wortley remarked on the Labor Party’s policy. We note that after 11 years, in order to develop your policy, you have to have a summit. When in doubt, have a summit—that is exactly what happens with the Labor Party. After 11 years, it has no idea what to do.

For Senator Wortley and Senator Lundy to lecture the government on policy in here today is quite astonishing. It was a very weak effort. I noticed that this time Senator Wortley steered clear of the coal industry because the Labor Party is so divided over that particular issue. Many workers are employed in the coal industry and they are very anxious to hear what the Labor Party policy is in relation to their industry. Yes, you have a clean coal policy, but it is our policy that you have grabbed. We have been talking about clean coal now for years and, suddenly, the Labor Party has decided it has a clean coal policy. There was an announcement today by Mr Rudd about solar power which is merely a continuation of the policy that we have in place. Talk about trying to create light and sparks! The truth of the matter is that the Labor Party policy is extraordinarily vacuous and has huge holes in it that need to be filled.

Senator Wortley talked about the policy to cut greenhouse emissions by some 60 per cent by 2050—and I would be very interested to hear what Senator Hurley, who is in the chamber, has to say on this, if she is to make a speech. It will be interesting to find out how that target will be reached and what the implications are for major sectors of the Australian economy. Of course, we will have a debate on that. An astonishing feature of your policy is this, Senator Wortley: would we be cutting that without any international agreement at all? Australia supplies about 1.5 per cent, from memory, of world greenhouse gas emissions. Your policy apparently proposes a major cut in these emissions without requiring any matching cuts from other countries. Senator Hurley may be able to explain to us precisely what that means. Would this be a unilateral cut? If so, Senator Hurley, a lot of people in this country would be very upset. It may be part of a multilateral agreement—and we are all for that. However, if that multilateral agreement did not come off, where would that leave your current policy position?

So there is really quite a range of questions which now have to be answered. There are questions from the coal industry about Labor Party policy and whether Mr Garrett in the end will win the day and close down the coal sector. A lot of the government’s supporters are very keen to hear that, of course.

The other thing that I would say is that we are having a debate in this chamber on an extremely important issue, so where are the Greens? Where is Bob Brown? Where is Senator Milne? I must say, you wonder where on earth the Greens are, when they have been trumpeting this issue in this chamber. Here we are having a serious debate on the issue and they are missing in action.

I thought Senator Ian Campbell made a really excellent speech, with excellent remarks, and showed what a quality minister he was. He was able to add some depth and context in his responses to some of the claims that were made by the Labor Party which were, I have to say, unanswered by Senator Wortley. We listened carefully to see whether the remarks that Senator Campbell made on emissions trading would be answered by Senator Wortley, but of course they were not. So what we have is a policy that is vacuous. After 11 years, no real leadership has been given by the Labor Party on this issue. I am afraid that, unless Senator Hurley can win the day, the Labor Party is far behind on a very important issue. (Time expired)