Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I am very happy to restate the government’s proud record in relation to responding seriously and sensibly, and against the background of our long experience in government, on this international issue of climate change. We do take the issue seriously, but we made a very sensible and wise decision not to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and it is well known why we did that: the world’s major emitters are not part of that protocol. The Labor Party seem to forget that Australia is responsible for some 1½ per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s major emitters—the United States, China, India and Brazil, which account for, I think, some 60 per cent of the world’s emissions—are not part of that protocol. All that ratifying that protocol would do would guarantee the export of jobs from this country. You would guarantee that energy-intensive industries, which all of us have worked so hard to bring to this country to employ Australians and to create wealth for Australians, would simply migrate to those countries not part of the protocol and not bound by any of its restrictions—to countries where there are much worse environmental practices than in this country, resulting in probably greater emissions than if those industries operated in this country. There would be no net benefit to the environment whatsoever and probably a net deficit to the environment internationally, and at the cost of jobs and wealth in this country.

What we did, however, was agree to adopt the target set for Australia and restrict our emissions to 108 per cent at the start date. I am advised we are on target to meet that objective because of the substantial range of measures that we have adopted. It was the Australian coalition government that introduced the mandatory renewable energy target. For example, we were the ones who introduced the solar panel rebate, about which now the Labor Party have said: ‘Yes, we like that too. We’ll have some of that.’ They are proposing to keep our solar power rebate policy, which of course this government will also continue. As I said, we have committed some $2 billion to support emissions-reducing technologies. We are supporting the world’s biggest solar power plant—the solar tower in Victoria. We are conducting research into clean coal, which the Labor Party now support. As I said before, we have the task force on emissions trading. We are taking a whole range of steps to ensure that Australia does play its appropriate and responsible part in the way the globe is tackling climate change. But we will not do anything which will unduly threaten the jobs of Australians and we will not do anything to threaten the foundations of the Australian economy.