Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am somewhat disappointed that Senator Birmingham did not give us a bit of a Macarena, but he did use a party trick, and that party trick was done through smoke and mirrors. He indicated to the Senate that somehow the Labor government previously had a different policy. The Labor government has always been committed to taking action on climate change. That has not changed. Mr Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition, has had at least eight different positions. Senator Birmingham actually knows perfectly well the history of Mr Abbott’s policy changes, with him at one time supporting an ETS, then coming out against it and then saying that climate change is ‘total crap’. But I want to go through the whole history of Mr Abbott’s positions on climate change. The fact is that this opposition has no coherent policy.

Mr Abbott supported former Prime Minister Howard’s decision to take an ETS to the 2007 election. On 24 July 2009 he supported passing Mr Rudd’s ETS. Then on 27 July he opposed an ETS. Then he supported a carbon tax. And then we have his famous comments from October 2009, in which he called all politics on this ‘absolute crap’. Then he said that an ETS is a sensible policy; then he challenged Mr Turnbull on the ETS. And we all know what happened there. It was a close-run thing. Since then, he has been against a carbon price. There is no coherent policy from the opposition. The Labor government has given a commitment to taking action on climate change. The Prime Minister outlined the government’s plan to cut pollution, to tackle climate change and to deliver the economic reform Australia needs to move to a clean energy future.

This is in stark contrast to those opposite. The Labor government has a plan for the future. We recognise that the cost of climate change will be far greater in the future if we choose to not act now. After the election, the government set up the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, which included members of the government, the Greens and Independent members of parliament, who examined the options for a carbon price. Members of the opposition were invited to participate but have not yet taken up that invitation. The committee was advised by leading experts in the fields of economics, climate science and the social sciences. This is not a policy on the run or inaction. This is a strategic, well-informed plan for tackling climate change.

The Prime Minister, along with members of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, released a paper for public comment on a two-stage plan for pricing carbon. If the legislation is agreed upon by parliament, a carbon price will begin on 1 July 2012. The carbon price will be a market mechanism, commencing with a fixed price for a specified period of between three and five years. Following the fixed price period, there is the intent to transition to an emissions trading scheme. The fact is that pricing carbon is the most efficient and cost-effective way of reducing carbon pollution and supporting Australia in the transition towards a low pollution future. It is an important economic reform that is in our national interest. A carbon price is crucial to maintaining our prosperity and competitiveness in a carbon constrained world. Without certainty over a carbon price in the economy, investment in our energy market and low pollution technologies has stalled, costing us more in the long term. We have been talking about action on climate change for decades. It is time to stop the talking and the inaction. (Time expired)