Senate debates
Monday, 7 November 2011
Bills
Clean Energy Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Household Assistance Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Tax Laws Amendments) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Fuel Tax Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Customs Tariff Amendment) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment) Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment Bill 2011, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Shortfall Charge — General) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Auctions) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Unit Issue Charge — Fixed Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (International Unit Surrender Charge) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Customs) Bill 2011, Clean Energy (Charges — Excise) Bill 2011, Clean Energy Regulator Bill 2011, Climate Change Authority Bill 2011; In Committee
10:16 am
Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source
I am coming back to the point. China has also indicated it will introduce emissions trading pilot schemes in a number of provinces, including the industrial centres of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. The World Bank has recently indicated the prospect of these schemes being expanded to a national scheme by 2015. India has a tax on coal which is expected to generate over half a billion dollars annually.
On the issue, the Senator has also yet again gone on about process here in this chamber. I again remind the chamber we have been debating this for many years. We look forward to dealing with the amendments and dealing with the bill. I thought I would also make this point. Mr Howard in October 2007 was asked:
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, just in relation to climate change, haven’t you locked Australia into an emissions trading scheme in the next term…
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I have.
JOURNALIST:
…regardless of what our trading competitors do?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, but that is precisely the sort of contribution we should make, because that emissions trading system is tailored to suit Australia’s needs and it’s an earnest of our serious commitment to making a contribution commensurate with the capacity of our economy.
It says 'earnest', but that may be a typo for 'indication'.
In the address to the Melbourne Press Club of 17 July 2007, he said:
In the years to come it will provide a model for other nations to follow.
Being among the first movers on carbon trading in this region will bring new opportunities and we intend to grasp them.
Let no-one believe that the Liberal Party's position in 2007 was ever dependent on the rest of the world moving. It was not. Out of the mouth of your Prime Minister—for whom, Senator Bernardi, I know you have enormous regard—very clearly your policy did not expect or anticipate that the world would move before you introduced an emissions trading scheme. Four years later that is your new position because it is the only way you can justify the change in position we have seen from Howard to Nelson to Turnbull to Abbott. It is the only way you can justify it. But the historical record shows you went to an election very clearly accepting the same advice we did, which is that delaying increases costs. You were not waiting for the rest of the world to put in place a price on carbon.
I invite the opposition or Senator Xenophon to move an amendment so we can get onto the substance of the matters before the chamber.
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