Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) 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 the 2005 Tracking to the Kyoto target report forecast that Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions would rise by 22 per cent between 1990 and 2020? Doesn’t the 2006 edition of this report show that our emissions will rise by 27 per cent between 1990 and 2020, five percent more than previously predicted? Can the minister explain why the government’s own projections of greenhouse emissions are getting worse? Doesn’t this show that after 11 long years in office the Howard government has failed to tackle our greenhouse emissions? Why has the Howard government so comprehensively failed to reduce emissions to help combat climate change?