Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

There are some who come to this place and make constructive contributions that add to global discussions that are taking place and ensure that Australia is well positioned in those discussions to put our national interest forward, that we take a strong stance going into them and that we have all aspects of those global discussions properly considered and properly undertaken. Then, of course, we have carping and whining and otherwise from the Greens, who come in here and try to make a political statement about who is representing the Australian government at such a conference and try to make a political point about whether the Prime Minister is there or not, about who the face of Australia is.

The Australian government have taken our representation at this conference extremely seriously. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is charged as part as part of her portfolio responsibilities with international climate change negotiations, is rightly our representative at this conference. From the way the Greens were talking, you would think that we were the only country on earth not to be sending their head of government, that foreign minister Julie Bishop was going to find herself completely at odds in the gathering taking place. That is far from the case. Also not present, other than our Prime Minister Tony Abbott, is: the Chinese President Xi Jinping; the Indian Prime Minister, Prime Minister Modi; the Russian President, President Putin; the German Chancellor, Chancellor Merkel; the Canadian Prime Minister, Prime Minister Harper; the New Zealand Prime Minister, Prime Minister Key; and at least a couple of dozen others if not more.

We are doing the right thing by ensuring we are appropriately represented and that Australia's position is appropriately put at this conference by foreign minister Julie Bishop, who is the person with the responsibility for it. Prime Minister Abbott cannot be in all places at once. I am sure it has not escaped even the Greens' attention that parliament is sitting this week. The Prime Minister has to work out how much time he is in parliament and how much time he devotes to international meetings. It is right, fit and proper that Minister Bishop be the person attending and representing Australia at this conference later this week.

At this climate summit, Minister Bishop will rightly highlight Australia's commitment to our 2020 target of reducing emissions to five per cent below 2000 levels. It is a bipartisan target. It has not changed one jot since the change of government last year. The five per cent target is equivalent to a reduction of some 22 per cent against the business-as-usual emission levels that would have been reached by 2020. It is a significant target. We are working to ensure it is met. As we said prior to the last election, in 2015 we will work through the proper processes of reviewing future targets post 2020. We will go through that in a careful, methodical manner. We will engage appropriately in international fora, based on the types of frameworks that are discussed through those fora.

I look forward to hearing from Senators Cameron and Urquhart, who I gather are participating in this debate, whether the opposition's policy in relation to targets has changed at all. Is it still the opposition's policy to stand by the target of a five per cent reduction by 2020? Does the opposition already have a post-2020 policy in relation to targets or do we still stand as one in relation to what the targets are?

Minister Bishop will highlight the action that our government is taking through the $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund to ensure we meet that target and to ensure we do, as indeed Australia did in relation to the targets under the Kyoto Protocol, meet the targets that we commit to. It would be nice if, in implementing that policy, some of those who come into this chamber and spend a lot of time talking about climate change issues actually allowed us to put in place all of the measures required to ensure the successful implementation of that policy.

Legislation is before this parliament that can expand the terms and operations of the Carbon Farming Initiative to ensure other means and opportunities for abatement are captured successfully by the Emissions Reduction Fund. It is important that that gets passed. I would urge the other parties in the chamber to give consideration to supporting that so we can see real action to meet our targets, to reduce emissions levels, to achieve abatement and to do so without the types of punitive measures we have seen in the past. There are others—and I am I sure will probably hear this from others in this discussion today—who suggest that the Emissions Reduction Fund and the Direct Action policy this government is pursuing is allegedly out of step with the rest of the world. That again is a falsehood, just as the claim that somehow Australia will be isolated in not having our head of government at the climate summit was a falsehood.

It is also a falsehood to say there are no other countries actively pursuing direct action. Direct abatement purchasing, similar to what is proposed under the Emissions Reduction Fund, occurs as part of Norway's Carbon Procurement Facility, Japan's Joint Crediting Mechanism and the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism. Energy efficiency measures, such as energy intensity and efficiency target schemes—the types of measures that could well be accredited under the Emissions Reduction Fund—operate in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Russia, New Zealand, Thailand, Turkey and many states of the United States. Various measures in agriculture, forestry and the land sectors are applied across significant forestry countries. Through the preparatory work for the global rainforest summit that will sit alongside the World Parks Congress later this year in Australia, we are working to enhance global efforts relating to deforestation. So there are a range of direct action measures occurring across many other countries of the world to bring about abatement opportunities and to ensure that they are achieved.

It is absolutely the commitment of this government that, with other countries of the world, we will work through a new global climate change agreement that we hope will establish a common playing field for all countries to take climate action beyond 2020. It has been a problem in the post-Kyoto framework that the talks that were held in Copenhagen, several years back now, collapsed and left the world without a clear framework for dealing with climate change. It is absolutely a problem. Perhaps it is notable that Australia's then Prime Minister did attend the Copenhagen talks—and that did not exactly help get a better outcome. We will work with other countries to try to ensure that we have a framework in place that creates a level playing field for all countries to make commitments and to stand by those commitments—to see those commitments honoured.

Australia has been, and will continue to be, a good international citizen in this space. Where we make commitments, we will deliver on policies that see them through. When a commitment was made around Kyoto, notwithstanding debates about full ratification, successive governments ensured that those targets were met. The commitment made, the bipartisan commitment to the unconditional five per cent reduction by 2020, is one that has stood in a bipartisan manner. As far as I am aware, it is still a bipartisan commitment and it is one that we will ensure is delivered by 2020. As we enter into these discussions and seek to ensure there is that common playing field under which countries can make post-2020 commitments, you can have confidence that this government, when it makes a commitment in those fora, will stand by that commitment and will deliver the policies to ensure that we meet it in future as well. I look forward to hearing in the debate whether the Labor Party's targets have changed at all.