Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Wong. I draw her attention to the report in today’s Financial Review that the minister for resources, Senator Martin Ferguson, is hosting a meeting of some 60 vested interests in this place on Friday so that they can complain about and lobby for their exemptions from a carbon-trading scheme. I ask the minister: will she or the Prime Minister be present at that meeting? Will she release to the Senate the names of the corporate heavies who have been invited? And will she be establishing a meeting of 50 representative Australians, including those from small business, tourism, rural and regional Australia and the public sector so that the wider public interest and the long-term interests of this nation are not lost under the weight of this biggest-end-of-town lobbying arranged by the minister?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bob Brown for his question. As the Senate would be aware, we released over the break a green paper which outlined in a fair amount of detail the government’s proposals on the design of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It was a comprehensive green paper. The reason we have undertaken this process is to enable consultation across a whole range of sectors of the community, including industry but also other sectors of the community. In case Senator Brown wishes to suggest otherwise, he should be aware that consultations have been held with a whole range of businesses and members of the community at both ministerial level and departmental level. It is the case that this is a whole-of-economy reform. We on this side of the chamber absolutely understand that, for the first time, placing a price on carbon to reflect—

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A tax?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection. It is very interesting, Senator Brandis, that it took about two minutes for the same sorts of scare tactics from the opposition on this issue. I would have thought, after your extraordinary shadow ministry meeting, where we had one, two or three positions beforehand and goodness knows what position thereafter, that maybe you would keep your head down, Senator Brandis, but I am happy to have the debate.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, address your comments to the chair.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will return to the question, Mr President. This is a whole-of-economy reform and there is a whole-of-government response. We are absolutely upfront about the fact that ministers from a range of portfolios will be consulting their sectors about the issues in relation to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Senator Carr will be consulting people within his portfolio. I know Minister Albanese is consulting the transport sector. Certainly I have been consulting widely, and Minister Ferguson, as a relevant minister, is also consulting with the sectors with which he deals. That is perfectly normal government business, Senator Brown.

I want to make it very clear that those of us on this side do understand that it requires extensive consultation with business in order to ensure we get the balance right. We also will continue to talk to environmental groups, as I have done, and to other members of the community about this important issue. This is a very substantial economic reform, it is a very substantial environmental reform and it is a complex reform. It is extremely important that we take a methodical approach to considering the options before government. As you know, these are matters on which we have canvassed an extensive amount of detail for the green paper and it is only appropriate that ministers across a range of portfolios consult closely with both business and members of the community about their views on this issue.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. The minister’s asseveration that government will be consulting widely means nothing. I ask the minister, as she left out the minister for the environment, Peter Garrett: will he be consulting 50 key environmental groups from across this nation in this parliament for a day to hear what they have to say on this issue? Will the minister for science be consulting 50 top scientists and might he invite the chief scientist for NASA—who has described the digging up of coal in the future as a criminal offence—to a similar conference in this parliament? Will the minister for small business be having a similar conference to look after the interests of the renewable energy and small business sector, and ditto for tourism? Where are these conferences, I ask the minister?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brown, I thought I made it very clear to you that there is a whole-of-government approach and that ministers will be consulting within their portfolios on a whole range of issues associated with the scheme. You left out, for example, the minister for families, who I know has an interest in these issues as well. I have met with environmental groups; I told you that in my primary answer. The reality is that ministers across a range of portfolios will consult as is appropriate on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. If Senator Brown’s suggestion is that somehow there is something wrong with government consulting with industry to ensure we get this important economic reform right, we will simply have to part company there, because we on this side understand the substantial economic reform— (Time expired)

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. I congratulate you. I can tell you that you carried the National Party to a man and a woman. They supported you—as they did you, Senator Ferguson. My question is addressed to Senator Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. I ask Senator Carr: is the New South Wales Labor Minister for Energy correct when he says that the Rudd Labor government’s emissions trading scheme could double power prices in the eastern seaboard electricity market, hence adversely affecting Australian industry?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Boswell for the question. I am not familiar with the remarks of the New South Wales minister that he refers to. What I can say is that the government’s proposals in regard to this important initiative mean that we as a country are for the first time actually able to prepare ourselves for the inevitability of climate change and to do so in a manner which will actually preserve jobs, provide opportunities for Australians and mean that we are able to meet the challenges that we are confronting head-on.

Inevitably, there will be cost increases as a result of these changes. But there have equally been measures taken by this government to consult widely, as we have heard from Senator Wong, to ensure that there is a proper consideration of these matters in a timely manner without pretending that we can give some sort of renaissance to the climate change sceptics in a manner which seeks to avoid the inevitability of these issues. What we are dealing with here is a matter of profound importance to this country, to this society and, of course, to this economy. Members of the opposition are unable to meet their responsibilities to the Australian people by fronting up squarely to the energy needs of this country or by dealing with the questions of climate change.

This government has moved rapidly to implement a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme from 2010. We will do so on a responsible basis to ensure that the industrial capacity of this country is protected and in such a manner as preserves jobs and ensures that living standards are maintained. The key to the prosperity of this country is ensuring that new investment takes place. We simply cannot pretend that these are problems which will go away and that do not require urgent action by the whole community.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find it very difficult to believe that you did not receive a briefing note on what your counterpart in the New South Wales parliament said. It is either ignorance or arrogance—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is not debating time, Senator Boswell. If you have a supplementary question, you may ask it.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I do have a supplementary question. If you do not understand this question, if you have not read what the minister said—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Boswell, it is not debating time.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will tell you. The Labor minister also said:

I shudder to think how the wealth and job-creating industries of NSW will cope.

Have you done any studies on this, and how many more manufacturing industry jobs will be lost under the government’s so-called Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Boswell. I am not familiar with the remarks of every minister in every state government across the country, particularly in an area of government responsibility for which I only represent the minister, Minister Ferguson, in this chamber. What we have now in this country is a government that is actually committed to ensuring that this country is prepared for the future, a government that is actually committed to ensuring that the energy sector is able to secure supply for the future in a manner that means that costs can be kept down and that the opportunities for future industrial development can be advanced. What we have had is the Ministerial Council on Energy recently agreeing to consider in more detail the impact of the arrangements that Senator Wong has outlined in the green paper. I look forward to the further consultations that this sector will have with the government, as will every other sector of the economy. (Time expired)