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

I think the one thing I do agree with Senator Brown on in that contribution is that it is possible to grow the economy and reduce emissions. We do believe that as a government. We also believe that if you set targets you should ensure you achieve them and that means taking action and introducing a scheme that delivers that. We also believe that we have a responsibility as the national government to manage the transition. I do not think the proposition that you can ignore the impact of a higher carbon price on different sectors of the economy or disregard it is a sound one. The reality is a higher carbon price will fall very differently depending on the industries involved. Obviously over time what you do want to do is encourage the economy as a whole to move to a much more low polluting economy; you want to encourage the development of clean energy jobs; you want to encourage much more energy efficient processes and new industries. I think the question here is how you achieve that and how you manage the transition. We do think there is a significant economic difference, particularly on a sectoral basis, between, for example, a starting carbon price of $50, $60 or $70 and a starting carbon price which is lower. I think that is self-evident, and the question is: how do you best manage that transition?

On the senator’s figures, when I said approximately 3.5 billion—and that was some mental arithmetic being done by some of my departmental officials here—that was in 2009 terms for each year, not one off. I just make the point that out to 2050 it is obviously a much bigger number. The GNP differences in the different scenarios modelled are set out on page 149 of the Treasury modelling. They range between minus 5.1 at 2050 to minus 6.7. We agree you can grow your economy. You can continue to grow jobs and reduce emissions. The government absolutely believes that. That is why we reject some of the scaremongering in this debate and we believe that as the nations of the world increasingly move towards those low carbon goods and services the world will increasingly move towards a global carbon constraint. We do want Australia to be able to compete in that world. In addition, we also know the costs of climate change to this nation. That is why we are doing what we are doing.