John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Minchin, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Can the minister confirm that the Prime Minister failed in his attempt to sideline the Kyoto protocol in his APEC Sydney declaration? Didn’t Chinese President Hu insist on amendments to the declaration that allow the next round of Kyoto to form the mechanism for securing international action post 2012? Didn’t President Hu also make it clear to the Prime Minister that he believes that Kyoto is ‘the most authoritative universal and comprehensive international framework for tackling climate change’? Given the Prime Minister’s failure to sideline Kyoto, will the government finally ratify Kyoto to ensure that Australia has a seat at the table in Bali in December for the discussions on a post-2012 agreement so that our national interests are represented?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate Senator Hogg’s confidence in our government being here in December and providing someone to attend the Bali meeting! I am quite sure that we will send a coalition government representative to the meeting in Bali in December. So thank you for your confidence, Senator Hogg.

The government’s position on the Kyoto protocol is very well known. We do believe that the world has moved beyond Kyoto. About the only people in the world who do not realise that are the Labor Party, who are still stuck with this idiotic symbolism of signing Kyoto. The world has moved well beyond Kyoto, and the Labor Party have not yet caught up. Kyoto is a failed doctrine. It does not include the developing nations, it does not set targets for the developing nations and it does not have comprehensive coverage of the world’s greatest emitters. Therefore, by definition, it is doomed to fail. The government, on the other hand—without signing up to Kyoto per se—have accepted our obligations to act in accordance with the targets that we set for ourselves. The Labor Party say that we do not have targets, but we have had a target for the last 10 years.

We made it quite clear that, of our own volition, we would adopt the 108 per cent target for Australia that was part of the Kyoto protocol—and we are on target to meet it without having signed up to that failed and doomed protocol. What I understand the Chinese government to be saying is that the development of the post-Kyoto world should be under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. We support that position. We do think that the way in which climate change must be addressed by the world should be under the auspices of the UN. We are in accord with the Chinese government on that matter.

We subscribe to the view that moving forward does require the UN to be the guiding hand, but we do believe the Sydney declaration, under the auspices of APEC, is a very important part of bringing together, in the Asia-Pacific region, the developed and developing countries, who I think represent about 60 per cent of the world’s emissions, to help advance the cause of developing a post-Kyoto protocol, under the auspices of the UN, which will actually work. We invite the Labor Party to recognise reality, to get mugged by reality for once, to forget about Kyoto and move on and accept what is happening in the world—that is, that we need to have a comprehensive declaration that does involve the developed and the developing world if we are to effectively combat climate change.

John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware that President Hu also stated on the weekend:

Developed countries should … strictly abide by their emission reduction targets set forth in the Kyoto protocol.

Can the minister confirm that Australia will fail to meet our generous Kyoto target of 108 per cent, even with a large offset of land clearing? Given the government’s failure to meet that target, and its refusal to ratify Kyoto, isn’t it understandable that countries like China are sceptical about the Howard government’s commitment to tackling climate change?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nothing that Senator Hogg has said indicates any scepticism on the part of the Chinese government. The Chinese government has joined with the Australian government, the United States government, the Russian government and every other member of the Asia-Pacific economic community to support the Sydney declaration. We welcome Chinese support for that. The Chinese government, which is not a signatory to or bound by Kyoto, would of course like to see the developed world meet its obligations. We are in fact going to meet our 108 per cent target, which we agreed to of our own volition in relation to Kyoto. We are proud of our record on climate change. It is practical, realistic, and it protects jobs—unlike the Labor Party, which will trash jobs to chase Green preferences.