Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week, the United States and China joined to announce a landmark commitment to curbing carbon emissions. Side by side, these two world superpowers declared that climate change is 'one of the greatest threats facing humanity'. The recognised unequivocally that 'human activity is already changing the world's climate system'. They also acknowledged the serious effects of climate change, including increased temperatures, rising sea levels and more droughts, bushfires and severe storms.

These two countries, which represent more than a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, put forward an ambitious set of commitments. China agreed that it would set a new target to move towards 20 per cent non-fossil fuels by 2030, while the United States pledged to cut emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent below the 2005 levels by 2025. Together, the put the world—especially Australia—on notice that countries would be expected to follow suit and put forward ambitious targets at next year's Paris climate summit.

The President of the United States of America, Barrack Obama, reiterated the importance of this joint US-China climate change and clean energy agreement in his address at the University of Queensland in Brisbane on Saturday.    Here, he said, and I quote:

In a historic step China made its own commitment for the first time, agreeing to slow, peak and then reverse the course of China's emissions...

He went on to say:

And if China and the US can agree on this, then the world can agree on this, we can get this done and it is necessary for us to get it done.

In the same address, Mr Obama also pointed out that no country is more at risk to the impacts of climate change than Australia when he said:

Nobody has more at stake when it comes to thinking about and then acting on climate change.

Here a climate that increases in temperature will mean more extreme and frequent storms, more flooding, rising seas that submerge Pacific Islands.

Here in Australia it means longer droughts, more wildfires.

The incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened.

Against this backdrop of the world leaders facing up to one of the world's greatest economic challenges, what did our Prime Minister do? That's right; he took this big opportunity to tell the most powerful people in the world about how hard it is for him to get legislation through to make Australians pay an extra $7 to go to the doctor.

Don't get me wrong: I think this is a very serious issue, and the $7 co-payment would have terrible impacts on Australian health outcomes and place a greater burden on the health budget for decades to come. But I believe this choice of subject matter is a clear indication of the petulance of our Prime Minister and of how incapable he is of putting domestic politics aside to act in the national and global interest. This was reinforced when Prime Minister Abbott used the same speech to brag to the G20 about how he is taking Australia backwards in our climate change response by repealing the carbon tax.

The Prime Minister might not want to admit it, but the reality is that, if we fail to act now, it will not be long before the impacts of climate change will send shockwaves through all vital sectors of our economy. While no sector will be unscathed, there will be particularly serious impacts for agriculture, tourism and health. World leaders understand this, economists understand this and scientists have been telling us this for decades. So why doesn't our Prime Minister understand? How can Prime Minister Abbott remain so determinedly out of step with the rest of the world? How can he so belligerently refuse to step up and ensure that Australia does our share as a responsible global citizen to reduce carbon emissions? How can he so blithely betray the future of our economy and our environment?

Across the world, experts have agreed that the most cost-effective means of reducing carbon is through an economy-wide pricing mechanism. Yet the government persist with Direct Action, their multibillion dollar slush fund for polluters that experts say has no hope of meeting emission reduction targets. If there was ever proof that this government are intent on propping up the fossil fuel industry at the expense of billions of dollars of investment and our international reputation, the shameful events of the G20 on the weekend tell the sorry tale. While key world leaders were uniting on the importance of developing ambitious measures to address climate change, this government were busy using every sneaky means they had at their disposal to shut down climate talks wherever possible.

But we should not be surprised. It has been an all-out war on the environment since those opposite secured the keys to the ministerial wing. They abolished the carbon tax, making Australia the only country to be moving backwards on our responsibility as a global citizen to address climate change. They have shut down the Climate Commission. They attempted to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation—a particularly senseless act when you consider that the CEFC actually returns a healthy profit to government coffers. They hope to close the doors at the Renewable Energy Agency and they tried to axe the Climate Change Authority. They called on a climate sceptic to undertake an inquiry to discredit the renewable energy target, but he failed to do that. Despite this, they are now trying to reduce the RET by 40 per cent. They tried to delist 74,000 hectares of World Heritage forest in Tasmania, despite offering no evidence to support their outrageous request. They commissioned an inquiry into emissions trading schemes—which they have already promised they will do nothing about, regardless of the findings.

The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has been telling the world that `coal is good for humanity', while accusing a senior UN official of, and I quote, 'talking through her hat' on climate change. Prime Minister Abbott also refused to attend the international climate change negotiations in Warsaw. He was also a no-show at the International Climate Summit in New York, despite the fact that he was due to attend a UN Security Council meeting in New York the very next day. And the Prime Minister's sidekick, Treasurer Joe Hockey, has been doing his bit for the anti-environment cause by bemoaning that he thinks wind farms are 'utterly offensive'.

Behind the scenes at the G20, the Abbott government were doing everything they could to keep climate change off the agenda. When this failed, they desperately tried—and failed again—to scuttle the push from world leaders to include climate change statements in the final G20 communique. And, now, Mr Abbott is refusing to contribute towards the UN's Green Climate Fund. Yesterday Mr Hockey was out and about again peddling disinformation by saying that climate change is not a major impediment to global growth, in direct contradiction to the views of G20 participants.

So it is clear that this government is a repeat offender in this area. They are steadfastly opposed to renewables and intent on shackling Australia to the industries of decades gone by. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is embracing the transition a low-carbon future and the economic opportunities it will offer.

What is truly galling about the Abbott government's stance on climate policy is that it is not only environmentally and diplomatically reckless, but it is economically irresponsible, too. By actively pulling apart the mechanisms Australia has in place to address climate change, this government is actively destroying investment opportunities and jobs. By shutting down initiatives that encourage a greater use of renewables, this government is sentencing households and industry to more expensive bills for decades to come. And soon, Australian companies that are paying sky-high prices for fossil-fuel based energy will have to compete with international companies that have turned to renewables.

The American president and the Chinese understood this when they outlined in last week's historic declaration of the landmark deal that:

… smart action on climate change now can drive innovation, strengthen economic growth and bring broad benefits—from sustainable development to increased energy security, improved public health and a better quality of life. Tackling climate change will also strengthen national and international security.

Today, we have heard nothing but whining from those opposite that we cannot possibly afford to do our share in addressing climate change. Of course, we know that stoking up fear and hysteria over debt is one of the government's tried and true strategies, but that does not make what they are saying true. The fact is that Australia is one of only ten nations on the planet with a AAA credit rating from all three ratings agencies. And the truth is that our debt is about one-fifth of the average debt of other industrial economies. I would put it to those on the other side that the exact opposite is the case—we simply cannot afford not to act on climate change.

On the weekend, what an embarrassing way we saw to perform on the world stage. What an appallingly regressive, selfish and ill-considered response to one of the greatest challenges facing our planet.