Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Campbell. Will the minister inform the Senate how the Howard government’s environment policies and programs are delivering real results for the environment? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fierravanti-Wells for her question. The Howard government has invested roughly quadruple what the previous Labor government invested in the environment. We have also put a lot of effort into making sure it delivers on-the-ground results. I will run through some of those programs. With regard to climate change, which I think is very high on the list of most citizens who have concerns about the environment, we are on track to invest in excess of $2 billion in projects such as building the largest solar power plant anywhere in the world, using geothermal and hot rocks and capturing carbon and burying it under the sea.

In terms of water, we have invested over $2 billion in the Australian government water fund to secure Australia’s water future. We have invested $3 billion in the Natural Heritage Trust and $1.4 billion in the National Action Plan on Salinity and Water Quality. We are delivering results right across the Australian landscape through our regional delivery structure, which is on track to plant in excess of 750 million trees across Australia, protecting remnant vegetation. We are protecting, through the National Reserve System, in excess of 10 per cent of the Australian land mass now put into reserves under the Howard government at a cost of $87 million and protecting some of our rarest biodiversity, our rarest Australian wildlife and our wetlands.

With respect to the Great Barrier Reef we have—much to the delight of the finance minister—invested over $100 million to lock up and protect in excess of one-third of the Great Barrier Reef as an historic and internationally recognised marine protected area. In the Murray River, we have a plan in place to deliver 500 gigalitres of water to the environment, topping up funding under the Living Murray program with a further $500 million to give that river a chance to revive the crucial environment and also to protect agriculture along that route.

From the other side we have, in alternative policies, just slogans. There are no serious policies. We have a slogan in relation to climate change under Labor which just says ‘Sign Kyoto’. The whole world is trying to design a new Kyoto and the mob over there is saying, ‘Let’s sign up to the old one,’ the one that does not work, the one that is seeing greenhouse gas emissions go up, in fact, by 40 per cent.

We see Labor deeply divided on the issue of uranium. We know that uranium and nuclear power will play a role in a low-emissions future for the planet, yet Labor are deeply divided. We have Mr Albanese on one side saying no and Mr Ferguson on the other side saying yes. We have Labor deeply divided on the role of clean coal. We have half of the Labor Party saying, ‘No, we’ve got to get rid of coal and close down the coal mines,’ and the others confusing the message.

In relation to the Murray, they have one slogan saying ‘1,500 gigs for the mighty Murray’, yet Labor do not have a policy to deliver it. In fact, what Labor have not realised is that there was not even 1,500 gigalitres poured into the entire Murray-Darling Basin system for this entire year. They have no funding, no policy and just another slogan. On the Great Barrier Reef, we know that their only slogan is to tear up the boundaries that we plan to lock away in legislation for seven years.

The biggest challenge for Mr Rudd is to do away with the pure style and pure slogans and finally, after 10 years, come up with a policy, fund it and protect something that the Australian population cares about. Australia’s unique environment is something that is worthy of protection. The Howard government protects it with record amounts of funding and programs that deliver good environmental outcomes.