Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I have a couple of points. The senator suggests there is not a different economic cost. I just sought advice because I could not recall what the starting carbon price for a 25 per cent reduction was, and the Garnaut model of 25 per cent had a starting carbon price of some $52. So I do not think it is correct to say that the costs are virtually identical. I think that is one of the difficulties in this debate. I respect the Greens having a different policy position on this issue, but I disagree with the assertions that these do not come with different economic costs. The reality is that the transition of our economy—which, as the senator knows, is a highly carbon intensive economy—from one that is highly carbon intensive to one that is low polluting is very substantial economically, and where we differ from the Greens is that we believe that transition has to be dealt with responsibly and effectively. We want to support industry and Australian jobs through that process of transition, so I am a little unclear why the senator says there are virtually identical costs.

Regarding the point about what the rest of the world was asking, I am trying to recall if there is any developed country that has promised that level of ambition. We do face a significant challenge in reducing our emissions precisely because we are such a high per capita emitter. That is not an excuse. We should not use that as an excuse to not act, which is what occurred for too many years under the previous government, but it does demonstrate the scale of the structural change to our economy that we have to achieve in order to reduce our emissions.