Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

It seems like an eerily familiar story: every time Australia has set climate reduction targets, the Australian Greens have predicted that we would not meet those targets. And every time the deadline for the emissions reduction targets comes around, lo and behold: not only has Australia met those targets but has exceeded those targets. We are absolutely confident as a government that once again the Commonwealth government—Australia—will meet and honour its commitments and may well exceed those commitments again. Australia has made very strong commitments in relation to emissions reduction targets—to reduce emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. That is the equivalent of a 52 per cent reduction in Australia's per capita emissions—among the highest of any G20 country. Yet the Greens and the Labor Party say that's insufficient, and the Labor Party promised they would commit to something even more, but without a skerrick of detail as to how they would see that achieved or what the impact would be.

Australia is a country that makes international commitments, honours its commitments and delivers on those commitments. That is precisely what we have done in relation to every emissions reduction target to date. Indeed, in relation to our 2020 target—to get five per cent below 2000 levels—we see that we are well and truly on track and indeed likely to exceed that, just as we beat our first Kyoto target, by some 128 million tonnes. So, regarding this trajectory, this pattern of behaviour by the Greens, whereby they say targets are insufficient—but then they also say the targets won't be met—the truth is that the government, the country, does meet its targets, and we will do so again.