Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hanson-Young for the question. I'm very happy to provide guarantees that the Prime Minister, as he's indicated, will travel to Glasgow. He will outline the extent to which Australia made commitments in the past, and met and exceeded our commitments in the past, across the Kyoto protocol's first and second commitment periods. He will outline how, in relation to the Paris Agreement, Australia is meeting, and is on track to beat, 2030 targets, demonstrating that, once again, as a country, we don't just talk about these things; when we make a commitment we deliver on it, and in ways that actually exceed those expectations. Our commitments that we have made to date have seen our emissions fall faster than those of Canada, Japan, New Zealand or the United States. We can demonstrate very clearly that we have made commitments, that our commitments are delivering, and that our commitments and our delivery are exceeding many of those around the rest of the world.

Importantly, the Prime Minister won't be going to Glasgow just to talk about our commitments for the future. He'll also be going to talk about our plans for how we deliver those commitments in terms of continuing to reduce those emissions in ways that have led and exceeded those of much of the rest of the world to date, as well as our plans for how we will protect the jobs in Australian communities on that journey. That is something that is all too often overlooked by those in the Greens and those opposite, who want to make the commitment first and worry about the job impacts afterwards. On this side, the Liberal Party and the National Party, working together, are seeking to address all of these issues concurrently, ensuring that we are best placed to keep reducing emissions while continuing to grow our economy and protect and support jobs in regional communities around Australia. That's what we've done through the last few years, and that's what we will continue to do successfully. (Time expired)