Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor government wants to approach climate change in a smart, visionary way. We could have chosen the ignorant and myopic way—that is, to do little and allow our national economy to become the victim of global economic restructuring. But Australians have chosen the smart, visionary way and they made this decision at the last federal election by electing a Rudd Labor government. So when citizens observe the hardcore climate sceptics sitting opposite as they brandish increasingly outlandish denials about the established scientific evidence of climate change, what they are witnessing is the final desperate flare of the once leading lights of the ideological hard right of the Liberal Party. This flare will no doubt rapidly peter once this debate has occurred and I look forward to the final ember being ground out when we conclude what is the most significant parliamentary debate of this generation of elected representatives. We are debating the CPRS, but for many observers the nature of the discussion determines that we are debating whether or not climate change exists.

Labor’s plan is the smart, visionary way and we will see governments now and in the future managing a whole-economy program of restructuring that will continue well into the second half of this century. We are negotiating because we firmly believe we must start the transformation now. The Rudd Labor government is providing the leadership that citizens voted for and expect. We are taking responsible and decisive action to tackle climate change by introducing this Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The CPRS will reduce Australia’s carbon emissions and ensure we increase our investment in industries of the future like renewable energy—solar, wind and geothermal—creating thousand of new businesses and clean jobs in low-pollution industries.

The Rudd Labor government has produced a responsible and well-thought-through scheme that takes the first steps to reduce our carbon pollution while also protecting our economy and jobs during the global economic downturn. Schemes are already operating in 27 European countries and 27 states and provinces in the USA and Canada. Canada is introducing emissions trading to reduce carbon pollution as is New Zealand. Passing the CPRS legislation before the end of the year will give Australian businesses the certainty they need about the future. That is why business groups want it dealt with now.

The CPRS will help us tackle climate change to ensure our kids and future generations are not the ones left to clean up the mess. It is necessarily complemented by other government policies and the private sector responses to them. This determines whether or not we maximise jobs and employment outcomes from the economic transformation.

The Rudd government is committed to creating low-pollution jobs for the future as part of our comprehensive approach to combating climate change. Over $13 billion has been committed to programs that will increase the demand for low-pollution products and services and the associated employment opportunities. The government is helping business invest in energy efficiency and develop and commercialise new, low-carbon and renewable products in transport and energy generation. For example, there is the $90 million Green Building Fund, the $1.3 billion Green Car Innovation Fund and the $4.5 billion Clean Energy Initiative.

The CPRS and our renewable energy target will create the low-pollution jobs of the future in solar energy, on wind farms and in jobs using new technologies like clean coal and geothermal energy. The jobs that will be created will be in new industries and established industries alike. They will be in semi-skilled, skilled and professional occupations and will be spread throughout Australia. For example, the $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program will aim to create an additional 1,000 megawatts of solar generation capacity. This ambitious target is three times the size of the largest solar energy project currently operating anywhere in the world.

We expect to see a fourfold increase in the output of renewable energy other than hydro, and a doubling of total renewable energy output, by 2020. In other words, the government’s renewable energy target is that 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2020. This means that in 10 years time the amount of electricity coming from sources like wind, wave, solar and geothermal energy will be about equal to Australia’s current household electricity use.

I note with interest that there are already around 50 wind farms in operation around Australia. I was absolutely thrilled as a senator for the ACT that the Prime Minister, Minister Wong, Minister Garrett and New South Wales Premier Rees launched the Capital Wind Farm today in Bungendore, a wonderful town and community not too far from Canberra. Owners of the Capital Wind Farm, Infigen Energy, have built 67 wind turbines, almost five times the size of any other wind farm in NSW. The farm will increase the nation’s wind power capacity by more than 10 per cent, providing electricity to around 60,000 homes.

The project has already provided employment opportunities for over 120 people during the construction phase and will provide ongoing employment in the local community. It is also an excellent example of how clean energy industries create the high-skilled jobs of the future, with Australia’s first wind farm apprentices being employed at Capital Wind Farm, learning the work of electro-technology and wind turbines.

Treasury modelling released in October 2008 shows that our policy measures leading to projects like this will see the output of the non-hydro renewable energy sector grow to 30 times its current size by 2050, creating thousands of new jobs. The International Energy Agency estimates that additional investment of US $45 trillion will be required by 2050 to drive the uptake of renewable energy. Australia must be in a position to attract this investment.

As Minister Wong pointed out in question time yesterday, the Climate Institute has calculated there is already $31 billion dollars worth of clean energy projects underway or planned in response to our policies to promote renewable energy and reduce emissions. These projects are expected to create some 26,000 new jobs. I note the minister also did not miss the opportunity yesterday to point out to the National Party representatives in the Senate that most of these jobs would be in regional Australia.

It is also useful to mention at this juncture that the government’s biggest ever investment in energy efficiency, under the Nation Building and Jobs Plan, is already creating jobs as well as assisting millions of households in Australia to reduce their energy use through the installation of insulation, cut their power bills by up to $700 a year, and increase the comfort and value of their homes.

On 13 February, Dennis D’Arcy of the Insulation Council of Australia and New Zealand said the Nation Building and Jobs Plan would create around 4,000 jobs in the insulation industry. The council has now come back and said that, based on recent industry reports, new employment growth is likely to be higher than these initial expectations. On 3 February, an insulation fitter told ABC Radio:

Our own company... had to lay off a shift in one of our plants just before Christmas. We’ll be putting that shift back on.

On 5 February, Mr Ray Thompson from Bradford Insulation told the Australian that their new Brisbane plant would move to 24/7 production and that they would start employing people immediately.

The government is indicating to the Australian people that it is prepared to provide the leadership for the massive task of restructuring the energy sector. We all know government leadership and finance will indeed be necessary as the private sector is not able to respond quickly enough on it own. The last time the electricity sector was technologically transformed was back before World War II and back then it required nationalisation. It is a different form of intervention in the 21st century. The introduction of the CPRS and investing in renewable energy is a practical, sensible and timely approach for the times.

If we do not act now, Australia’s economy will be left behind. Treasury modelling released in October 2008 demonstrated that economies that defer action will face long-term costs around 15 per cent higher than those of economies that take action now. Not only would inaction leave us behind; it would cost us far more in the end anyway. How can the opposition justify shifting this burden onto the next generation?

If we do not act now, Australia will miss the surge in investment in clean jobs through renewable energy technology investment. What a tragedy this would be for us as a nation. We, correctly, pride ourselves on our collective capacity to contribute to the array of exciting new technology developments in renewable energy technologies. We were world leaders in photovoltaics in the past—before the Howard government—and we could be again if we build on the government’s timely investments. Support for our clever scientists and increased funding for research and development in our universities and research houses are part of this timely investment by the Labor government. The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double, from US$1.3 trillion per year, as it is at present, to US$2.74 trillion by 2020 according to the United Nations Environment Program report of last year. Surely the opposition is not motivated to stifle this potential by voting down these bills. Surely this opportunity for Australia to improve our economic security and at the same time contribute to solving one of the great moral challenges of our time—that of saving our planet—is too important to let slip in a moment of madness.

I do believe this moment of madness gripping the Liberal Party and the National Party will eventually pass. After all, the science is in. I wish the genuine negotiations that are taking place well. I think the Labor government has shown a great deal of goodwill in this regard. However, for the moment, the madness persists—at least with some. It makes me wonder if the dinosaurs who deny that human induced climate change exists at all will be around for long enough in this place to wear the political burden of the damage done if these bills fail. I suspect not. In the words of a dear friend who watches politics closely and often shares her astute insights with me, the 21st century dinosaurs of the Senate who vote to block these bills will no doubt meet the same fate as the dinosaurs did towards the end of the cretaceous period of the earth’s history, as a result of their inability to adapt or evolve in response to dramatic changes to their environment—extinction!

In closing, Labor is committed to pursuing the most ambitious outcome from Copenhagen. We concur with the statement by President Obama that any deal at Copenhagen must have ‘immediate operational effect’. It is essential that we go to Copenhagen with a strong hand, and that is why I join with my Labor colleagues, in particular Minister Penny Wong, in commending these bills to the Senate.