Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. Is the minister aware that in April this year the Minister for Foreign Affairs specifically dismissed the idea of setting aspirational targets for emissions reductions, saying that this would be ‘code for a political stunt’? Didn’t he also go on to say that ‘an aspirational target is not a real target at all’? Does this mean that the Prime Minister’s APEC aspirational target on emissions reduction is, using the words of Mr Downer, a political stunt? Why won’t the Howard government commit to real and binding targets to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions?