Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

I first must express some concern that the Greens would move such a misleading a motion as we have seen here today. Of course I would be concerned that the Greens who are only too happy to tell us that they have a monopoly on environmental concerns have really failed to address some basic questions about the importance not so much of state policy issues but of national policy questions.

In fact, I would take the motion much more seriously if Senator Di Natale was able to tell us why in 2009 the Greens torpedoed the establishment of an ETS in this country. When they had the chance to develop an effective ETS arrangement, they chose to side with the knuckle-draggers from the Liberal Party in opposing concrete measures that could be taken to seriously affect our carbon emissions in this country.

But let me talk about national policies in more contemporary terms. The renewable energy target under the Abbott government has been quite strongly attacked. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources we understand is very importantly associated with the RET. The requirement that 20 per cent of Australia's electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2020 is a very worthwhile policy objective and, of course, it is an important policy instrument through the RET. The Abbott government's appointment of a review, chaired by a well-known climate change sceptic, none other than Dick Warburton, undermined the somewhat broadly accepted scientific consensus on the values and the importance of climate change and produced recommendations which would effectively render the RET policies pointless.

Labor refused to go along with that agenda. While we are open to negotiations on adjustments of the target, we do not support undermining it. We have tried to discuss these matters with the government but it has become perfectly clear that the real intent of the government is to undermine the RET and, as a consequence, Labor has had no choice but to withdraw from those discussions. We will not repudiate the target and we will not betray the renewable energy industry and all those who work in it.

Daniel Andrews, the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria, has made it clear that that is the position the Victorian Labor Party pursues as well and that any Victorian government led by the Labor Party and Daniel Andrews would promote renewable energy sources, but of course that will depend upon the national policy positions which have been adopted. In that respect, the buck stops with Mr Abbott. While Mr Warburton's committee was conducting its deliberations, I must say I visited towns in western Victoria where the fate of the RET and the renewable energy industry is a matter of deep, immediate concern to those communities.

In the Western District and in many parts of rural Victoria, the RET is all about jobs and jobs that sustain communities. It is the uncertainty about the RET, created in the first place by the Warburton review and now by the government's insistence on substantially cutting the target that is putting those jobs at risk. In Ararat, a $450 million wind farm project had been stalled by the government's announcement of the Warburton review. RES Australia, the wind farm developer, said that the project would not go ahead if the target is changed. The same doubts have also been put out about wind farms in the Pyrenees, the North Grampians and neighbouring shires of Ararat.

Uncertainty continues around Victoria where 17 wind farms are considered unlikely to proceed if the RET is cut, at the cost of 6,400 jobs. The Abbott government has never concealed its contempt for the renewable energy industry. The Treasurer notoriously described wind farms as 'a blot on the landscape'. I heard similar sentiments expressed by Senator Ryan here a few minutes ago. When the people of Ararat and other Victorian towns affected by the government's hostility to renewables look at the wind turbines on hillsides, they do not see a blot. They see a source of jobs, of construction, of drought-proofing incomes for farmers who own the land, of cash flows to small businesses and of revenue to local councils which are able to build community services. This has been done at a time of great environmental crisis. That is what we ought be discussing here.

The Prime Minister and the government apparently think there is not a lot to like about the position that has been taken by many world leaders. We saw President Obama just recently making some observations about the importance of climate change to this country and to so many others. The government do not want to argue the case because there is no credible answer to put to the people of Ararat, the Pyrenees or the Grampians, to the people who know that their jobs can depend upon the development of renewable energy, who will, of course, understand the importance of the development of new industries. There is no credible answer to be given to people who ask why they no longer have a place in an industry that is crucial to the building of a sustainable future for the people of Victoria.

While the Abbott government goes about persisting on cutting the RET, we know that that position will be fiercely contested by Labor and will be fiercely contested by Daniel Andrews if he is elected Premier on Saturday. Strong indications suggest that the people of Victoria are tired of the fact that the coalition government has failed to stand up for their interests and has failed to defend them against the onslaught by the conservative government in Canberra. Tony Abbott knows that. That is why his Liberal colleagues have made it very clear that they do not want him anywhere near the Victorian election campaign because ordinary Victorians are onto him. They know what happened before the last election and about all the promises that were made, and the betrayals which have occurred since. We know the promises in health and we know the promises in education. We also understand that the government in Canberra does not want to see the development of new renewable energy industries in Ararat or in towns just like it.

The other great controversy which has emerged concerns the timber industry in Gippsland. I know some would like to see this as a very emotive issue. It affects the livelihoods of 600 people at the Maryvale mill, a $2 billion investment. It is the largest privately owned pulp mill facility in Australia. I know that the CFMEU and the workers in the industry have demonstrated their bona fides because of what I have seen in Tasmania. I know that the environmental groups in Tasmania were prepared to sit with workers in the industry and the environmental groups were prepared to work through serious issues with serious people about security, real environmental sustainability, real jobs and real prosperity

I know that the CFMEU actually took those industry agreements to a secret ballot of their members and that they were carried by those men and women who work in that industry. And those agreements have been stuck to; those agreements have been delivered. Even when this government—this Canberra government—wanted to remove the heritage listing of forests in Tasmania, those workers and employers stuck to those arrangements. I am equally confident that the same process will be followed in Victoria, because serious people who are serious about jobs and the future of Gippsland know that the only way to sort these issues is to actually get around a table and make binding commitments to one another about preserving jobs and the environment, and ensuring economic prosperity of the region.

Environmental groups will insist that solutions can be found. The Greens, however, have a long history of opposing such approaches. I take the view that, if you want to save the forests and if you want to be able to ensure that you save forest communities, you ensure that there are proper discussions— (Time expired)