Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If you want to talk about experience, I have been around a lot longer than you, my fine-feathered friend. I can assure you of that. Australia should not pay higher energy costs than is necessary to achieve emissions reductions—in other words, governments need to let the market sort out the most efficient means of lowering emissions with all emissions technologies on the table. This is the problem with Senator Milne’s comments before in which she talked about her views on hardline economists. The market needs to sort these out using all available technologies. It will get the most efficient means of lowering emissions with all those technologies on the table. The Australian government focuses on developing an emissions trading scheme that pulls through technology, rather than securing a plethora of conflicting price signals and red tape. An emissions trading scheme involving forward signalling of progressively more stringent emissions caps will provide incentives to move technologies, including renewables, towards deployment and encourage investment in low emissions technology by investors. This government has invested significantly in renewable energy.

I am mindful of the time and of the need for the Senate to get up at a reasonable time at the end of this sitting week, but I do want to make a couple of comments. For all that we hear from the Australian Greens in relation to this matter, I think the most interesting thing about this debate is: which was the first country in the world to have a greenhouse gas emissions office? Which was the first country in the world to do it and which government introduced it? Senator Milne knows exactly who it was. It was this government. Look at our substantial investment in this area. I would assume that Senator Milne supports the direction in which we have put our funding. We have clearly moved to address the sorts of issues that Senator Milne is referring to. Do I need to go any further than the Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund, $500 million; the Renewable Energy Development Initiative, $100 million; $100 million as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate; and the Solar Cities program? I could go on.

The government’s mandatory renewable energy target has leveraged around $3.5 billion in private sector renewable energy investment to increase renewable energy generation by more than 50 per cent compared with the 1997 level. As I said before, we have invested some $3 billion towards renewable energy. We are proud of our investment in this area, and we will not be lectured by the Australian Greens on our commitment in this area. We will not sit back and be lectured by you. Senator Milne, if you were serious about this matter, you would be acutely aware that this is premature, and you must acknowledge that it is premature. I can only assume on that basis that this is done for cheap political reasons. It will be opposed. It will be opposed on the basis that it is premature, that it cannot possibly achieve whatever it is designed to achieve until all those matters have been discussed and until those issues have been addressed. Until you know what the design features of a key emissions trading scheme are, this is a pointless motion and it will be opposed.