John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

And the atmosphere. But what do we do about reducing those poisonous gases? We will concentrate on carbon dioxide—the odourless, colourless, non-toxic gas which is essential to all life on earth —and we do not even concentrate on the poisonous gases. Twenty years or so ago, on a calm, fine spring morning, you could see the smog over Sydney—the pollution and smoke mixed. You do not see it now. Unleaded petrol has helped in some way. There are huge lead deposits under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, as scientists have discovered. I find it amazing that we concentrate on carbon dioxide and not poisonous gases. I wonder why those poisonous gases are okay? I see how on TV in China they have a meter measuring the dangers of breathing the air, and it is blowing through the red level. That is what they are breathing. The carbon dioxide is not hurting them, but those poisonous gases are. What are they doing to address it? It is a big argument.

Never forget that Australia produces roughly 1.3 to 1.4 per cent of the world's CO2. But we are doing our bit. Instead of spending $10 billion a year tax, which the previous Labor-Greens-Independents government placed on us—$9 billion and growing, going up and up all the time—we are spending $2.5 billion over four years with the Emissions Reduction Fund. That is about one quarter the cost to the Australian people of the carbon tax.

I want to make another point here. It is one of my pet hates. You see so-called environmentalists lock up national parks—just lock up the country and leave it. That has been pushed strongly through the National Parks Association. They have shut up the red gum forests in southern New South Wales now and all this country in New South Wales. They lock the country up, then the rain falls and of course the grass and vegetation grow. There is no grazing, very little hazard reduction burning and very little management, and along comes the lightning and along comes the bushfire. The Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria released an estimated 90 million tonnes of CO2. The one bloke who cleared the vegetation around his house—some 200 metres—was fined by the local council for clearing around his house, but his was the only house in the area that survived the fire. That is because he reduced the fuel levels on the ground. What a criminal he was! He was fined for doing the right thing and protecting his house. The insurance company should have paid his fine—they did not have to rebuild his house. I find this whole debate about the environment so ironic when it is all right to lock up country and not manage it.

In Tasmania, where Senator Whish-Wilson is from, 52 per cent of the six million hectares of that state is locked up. It is like you having a farm, Acting Deputy President Back, of 10,000 acres, locking up half and wondering why you cannot make a living on your farm! Because you have half of it locked up. That is in the national parks, wilderness areas and so on. Of course, they will get their share of fires—especially this year. One of the big concerns this year, after the huge wet winter and spring we have had, is South Australia. I see Senator Farrell from South Australia in the chamber. They will face a huge future bushfire danger. I hope that people do the right thing and that those who do the wrong thing are charged and punished severely if they are out lighting fires, because we are going to see more risk this year. Of course, bushfires put more CO2 into the air as well, plus the huge damage they do to stockfeed and, sadly, in many cases, the loss of life.

One thing I have pushed strongly for is soil carbon. When my wife, Nancy, and I bought our farm a few years ago the first we did was get the bulldozer in—the Greens reacted in negative way once before when I said this. We rebuilt the contour banks to prevent soil erosion. Our greatest asset is our topsoil. It has to grow food for thousands of years to come, for generations to come, yet we seem to pay little attention to our soil. Increasing carbon in the soil can be done by simply balancing the magnesium and calcium levels; it usually requires spreading lime and letting Mother Nature do its job. If we were to increase our soil carbon by three per cent over the 450 million hectares of agricultural land in Australia, that would neutralise our CO2 emissions for 100 years—zero. This is what we have to do: concentrate on looking after our land. The more carbon in your soil, the better your soil is. Healthy soil grows healthy food and you have healthy people. This is all a health issue.

Emissions trading schemes are schemes where wealthy people sell fresh air to wealthy people and poor people pay for it. It is as simple as that. That is what emissions trading schemes are. That is what the previous government wanted to do—have the carbon tax and then go to an emissions trading scheme. That puts costs onto businesses and puts costs onto households. We saw the cost of living going up and people paying more for electricity in their households and in their business. Of course, then they had less money to spend down at the local shops and the shops and businesses were doing it tougher, slowing the economy. Of course, lack of infrastructure is an issue. We only have to go to the South Australia's recent history—the state of darkness—to know how much money they spent on infrastructure there, even with the carbon tax put in place and the money they collected.

So I think we need a realistic attitude here. Yes, we are doing our bit—we are doing our bit at a lot lower cost than the previous government. We will meet our targets, and that is for sure. I think we can do a lot more for our environment. What is this whole parliament about, to me? Government is about protecting Australia for the future, for future generations, securing our country, whether it be protecting our environment, protecting our finances, protecting our borders from people coming here, protecting our Defence Force and keeping us safe.

Senator Roberts mentioned Mr Trump. It is amazing how critical so many Australians are of Mr Trump. I ask you to cast your memories back to the Second World War, the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea. That was a turning point in the Second World War. Who was there? The Americans. Do not ever forget that.

Senator Whish-Wilson interjecting—

Without the Americans in the Second World War, we would not have a parliament of democracy here today, Senator Whish-Wilson; we would be under a Japanese dictatorship. You should remember that when you are throwing criticisms at the Americans. They have been great allies for that long. Our side of this parliament will do our utmost to maintain that strong friendship and relationship with the Americans. That is what you should concentrate on—the fact of things. It is all right to criticise who they elected over there. You may not like their democracy and who they have elected, but the fact is that we owe America an enormous amount for the democracy we enjoy in this place. Sometimes you might think about that before you go shooting your mouth off, Senator Whish-Wilson.