Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Over the years I have noticed that the ALP likes to criticise the government for its failure to respond to environmental issues such as greenhouse gases and climate change. Yet the cold, hard fact is that one of the very first actions of the Howard government was to set up the world’s first greenhouse office way back in 1996. So you cannot say this government has not been concerned about climate change over the years; in fact, way ahead of any other government in the world this government was aware of greenhouse issues and concerned about climate change.

The Australian government’s climate change policy framework has embraced four key elements. The first of these is reducing domestic emissions at least economic cost. For the record, the government has committed to the introduction of a domestic emissions trading scheme, with the goal of commencing in 2011, and work on the scheme has already begun. So this government, far from not being concerned about domestic emissions, is right at the present time planning for a domestic emissions trading scheme.

We have developed key low-emissions technologies which are designed to improve energy efficiency and support households and communities in reducing emissions. It was recently announced that new complementary measures targeting schools, households and the nuclear industry would bring the government’s total investment in addressing climate change to no less than $3.4 billion since 1996—a very substantial amount of money and a very significant proportion of the budget of Australia. Again, the ALP simply cannot with any validity claim that this government has not addressed climate change issues in a very serious, significant and committed way.

We have also supported world-class climate change science and sought to develop techniques in science to adapt to the impacts of unavoidable climate change. To this end, the government has established the Australian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation with funding of $126 million—again, a significant amount of money. There is no doubt that climate change is occurring in the south-west of Western Australia, where I come from. There is no doubt that the rainfall in the south-west has dropped by something like 30 per cent over the last 25 years—that is real and significant evidence of climate change. We hear that the polar icecaps are melting and that there was less snow in the Alps in Germany and Switzerland last winter. There is evidence of climate change constantly to be seen around the world.

Climate change is without doubt a reality. There is still some doubt or argument about the causes. The ALP would have us believe that it is all due to human action and greenhouse gases. Other people who look into the records find that the world has gone through cyclical periods of climate change over a very long time and that issues like sunspots and variations in the orbit of the earth have to be considered. But, nevertheless, climate change whatever its cause is a reality, and the Howard government has been concerned about it right from the time it first came to office.

Far from being vulnerable to criticism by the ALP and mindless, endless criticism by the Greens on the issue of climate change, one of the strongest platforms in the record of the Howard government has been our record on the environment and in addressing environmental issues, not just in terms of concern about climate change as such but also in developing policies for renewable energy with our MRETs program and other programs, such as solar programs, to ensure that we use renewable energy sources to the maximum. This is one of the great achievements of the Howard government. (Time expired)