Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make some remarks on the Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013. I want to open my remarks with a quote by Dr Frank Jotzo, Director of the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at the Australian National University—and apologies, Dr Jotzo, if I am pronouncing your last name incorrectly:

Axing the Authority would be the most severe blow to Australia’s climate change policy institutions. Even if the carbon price was repealed, the authority has an important role. It has to advise on Australia’s national emissions target, and provide deep and critical analysis on any policy aimed at cutting emissions.

There we have it. This is an independent authority, established by the Climate Change Authority Act 2011, which the coalition wants to abolish. It is trying to do so in a package of legislation to remove a carbon price. Removing a carbon price and abolishing the Climate Change Authority are separate things and should be dealt with as such. This should not be hidden away in other legislation, as the coalition has tried to do.

Australian voters do not realise what beneficial and effective climate change tools they will lose in this package. As I have said, the CCA is an independent body that provides expert advice on climate change policies. It provides expert advice based on facts. It presents them—and it is up to the government how they act on the information provided. The CCA is an essential tool in properly dealing with climate change. Australia will be left behind the rest of the world if we do not deal with climate change appropriately.