Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of carbon of the total emissions from the world. Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of the total world emission of carbon. Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of the world's carbon emission. In politics we know that if you say something 20 times people will start to listen to you. The Senate may be pleased to know that I am not going to repeat that phrase—Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of the world's carbon emissions—20 times in this speech.

I feel passionate about the fact that Australians must know, children must know, that Australia is a very small contributor, a tiny contributor, an infinitesimal contributor to the carbon emissions of the world. If you believe that man's emissions of carbon are the cause of the changing climate—and I do not enter into the debate, but let us assume that is correct—then by reducing Australia's emissions by five per cent, which the Liberal and Labor parties are proposing to do, the impact on the changing climate from man's emissions of carbon will be infinitesimal. Yet, why do we continue to destroy the Australian economy and Australian jobs, and export those Australian jobs overseas, by pretending that if Australia does something with climate change then the rest of the world will follow?

I am a proud and passionate Australian. I know that Australia leads the world in some things, like on the cricket pitch, occasionally, or on the rugby league or rugby union field, or as the Matildas do, or in some science areas. In some areas of our life Australia does lead the world. But, come on, you are not telling me that because Australia reduces its carbon emissions by, say, 50 per cent that, firstly, that is going to have any impact on the changing climate of the world and, secondly, that the rest of the world are going to say, 'Gee Australia's done that. We'd better do that as well.'

I have just come from a wonderful meeting with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress of China. They have confirmed that 70 per cent of China's energy comes from coal fired power stations. They have confirmed that they are encouraging more coal from Australia and Indonesia because of transport needs. They have indicated that they continue to build coal fired power stations in China. They are shutting down some smaller ones and building bigger new ones. They also said that the use of coal has been down by five per cent in recent times, but they clearly say that is because all energy is down due to the slight contraction of the Chinese economy. They say that they are increasing their nuclear sources of power from four per cent up to a planned, I think, nine per cent.

Clearly, to meet our target of a five per cent reduction by 2020, we have to reduce our emissions by 126 million tonnes from business as usual, limiting them to less than 550 million tonnes annually. China's annual emissions top 10,000 million tonnes—that is more than the US and Europe combined. China's emissions have been growing most years by more than the total emissions from Australia. Our meagre reduction can have no discernible effect on the total global emissions, let alone upon climate change. We argue on how to trim five per cent, which is effectively one per cent of global emissions, while China produces a third of the total global emissions, and it continues to build coal fired power stations.

When are we going to get some sense into this argument? I keep asking the Greens and the Labor Party, and I know they hear me when I say: 'Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of the world carbon emission.' I know they hear me because they, at times, try very hesitantly to explain that we have to show that we are part of the world. I am sorry, but the world is not sitting there waiting for us to put pen to paper. Few serious countries outside the European Union are implementing any emission trading schemes. The fact is, and it is a crucial fact, it shows that there is no sign of this changing at any time in the future. Labor's preoccupation with an ETS is a testament to its political masochism and to the puerile nature of the Australian climate debate.

For almost a decade now, in a nation that will have little influence over international policy developments and no discernible effect on global climate patterns, this issue has been allowed to dominate domestic political debate and consume political leaders. It is a nonsensical debate. And I am concerned about the education of our children, because the children of Australia have been brainwashed into thinking that, if you turn off a light in Australia, somehow that is going to stop climate change.

This is a puerile debate in the extreme. We have to bring some sense into the debate. Sure, if everybody else were reducing emissions down to the levels proposed by some, then Australia should do its part. I have never suggested otherwise. But Australia should not ruin its economy, or send workers' jobs overseas because of the Labor-Greens carbon tax and other stupid proposals from those parties into the future. The Greens will always, as they do, denigrate anyone who does not believe in their passion, in their view on life. They are pretty good at denigrating and belittling people who express their own, different views. But I have not been a climate change denier. Never have I denied the climate was changing, because, as I repeatedly say, Australia was once covered in ice; of course the climate changes. The centre of Australia was once a rainforest; of course the climate changes. It is something that has been happening since time immemorial. This new theory—I often refer to it as a fad, a farce or a hoax—that suddenly, since the start of the industrial age, that sort of change of climate is happening anew, is just farcical and fanciful. But I do not even enter into that debate.

What I have to say to Australians—and to people in this parliament, in this government now and in future governments—is that Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of the total world emissions of carbon. Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of the world's emissions of carbon. I challenge anyone from the Greens political party or the Labor Party to tell me how reducing Australia's emissions by even, say, 50 per cent will have any discernible impact on the changing climate of the world. I await a response. I repeat: Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of the world— (Time expired)