Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased that the minister has said that Mr Turnbull is a good friend of his, because in saying that he would, I am sure, be very familiar with the opinion piece that Mr Turnbull published on 7 December 2009. I do not actually know whether I am entitled to say this in the chamber, but the title was 'Abbott's climate change policy is bullshit'.

The CHAIRMAN: I would prefer you did not say it, thank you, Senator Singh.

That was the title of the article, Chair, so I am just reiterating the title, but I will not repeat it. In that article—and I am sure that Senator Cormann will be very familiar with it, because he is a good friend of Mr Turnbull's—Mr Turnbull said:

It is not possible to criticise the new Coalition policy on climate change because it does not exist. Mr Abbott apparently knows what he is against but not what he is for.

… … …

… The Liberal Party is currently led by people whose conviction on climate change is that it is "crap" and you don't need to do anything about it. Any policy that is announced will simply be a con, an environmental figleaf to cover a determination to do nothing.

Here Senator Cormann is finding himself in the position of having to defend a policy that his good friend Mr Turnbull knows is a con. And I have to say you are doing a pretty good job at it, Senator Cormann. However, through our time in this place we know that it wears pretty thin when you revert back to type, to the mantra, rather than answering the questions that senators in this place are actually asking you—specifically, about the bill before us, which, I have to agree with Mr Turnbull, is very much a dud or a con.

The government's latest estimates of Australia's future greenhouse gas emissions in its ERF white paper are that, on current trends, Australia faces a cumulative emissions reduction task of 591 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in the period to 2020. So after taking into account updated emissions data for 2013 and 2014, the cumulative emissions reduction task is around 420 million tonnes in the period to 2020. On the basis of the money available and the emissions required, I calculate that the $1.15 billion in the ERF in the budget papers could purchase 421 million tonnes at about $2.75 per tonne. Or, if you were to spend the entire $2.55 billion, it would cost around $6 per tonne or lower for the next four years to reach Australia's target—a target you are very confident we will meet. So can you tell me which projects could afford to bid in the CFI on this basis?