Mark Butler, TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH ABC NEWS RADIO

MARIUS BENSON: Mark Butler, do you accept the carbon tax will be repealed this week?

SHADOW MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER MARK BUTLER: Well, it’s the clear the Government will try to get rid of it again this week, but if they do Australia will again lose any chance of a meaningful policy on climate change if the Government refuses to back Labor’s policy of terminating the carbon tax but replacing it with something meaningful, namely an Emissions Trading Scheme.

BENSON: What do you think of the proposals that Clive Palmer put up when he was standing next to Al Gore a couple of weeks ago about an Emissions Trading Scheme being retained in some mild form with a nil price. Do you think that and other measures retaining an architecture for dealing with emissions or this that just the smoldering ruins of a past policy?

BUTLER: Well we’ll have a look at the amendments when Clive Palmer releases them and obviously we’re interested to look at them. And what it does show is that, with Clive Palmer now supporting an Emissions Trading Scheme in principle as the right response, that Tony Abbott really is the only player in this debate who rejects an ETS as the right response for Australia.

BENSON: But is he in touch with the Australian public there? The Australian has a Newspoll this morning showing 53 per cent in favour of abolishing the carbon tax, only 35 per cent for the Senate working to retain it.

BUTLER: Well Labor went to the election with a policy of terminating the carbon tax, we’ve restated that time and time again, Bill Shorten restated it again yesterday, but we’re not going to throw the baby out with the bath water -

BENSON: But the Abbott policy does, in your term throw out the baby and the bathwater, in terms of no pricing mechanism on carbon.

BUTLER: Well, no pricing mechanism, no cap, no discipline on the amount of carbon pollution Australia produces and that is the critical problem with Tony Abbott’s response to this area – there’s no discipline whatsoever on carbon pollution for Australia. That’s why we won’t support it.

BENSON: Can’t the Prime Minister point to public support for his position and not yours?

BUTLER: Well he can point to public support for abolishing the carbon tax but that’s Labor’s position as well. The question is, the debate over the last several months is, what replaces the carbon tax and we won’t support throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There must be a meaningful response to climate change and that is an Emissions Trading Scheme.

BENSON: Can I ask you to take a moment to look at recent history. Is this an issue that Labor and the Greens have mishandled for years? You could have had a deal with Malcom Turnbull when he was Opposition Leader ready to support carbon pricing, 2010 Julia Gillard led the drive to force Kevin Rudd to abandon the carbon scheme that he said was the moral challenge of a generation and then you got rid of Kevin Rudd. Have you got it wrong at every crucial moment, you, Labor?

BUTLER: Well there are plenty of commentators who’ll take the time to sit down to look over history. We’re focused on today and tomorrow and that is arguing the case for the right policy for Australia. We’re absolutely convinced that’s terminating the carbon tax and putting in place an Emissions Trading Scheme, the sort of scheme we’re seeing developed all over the world including in our own region in places like China and South Korea, our third largest export partner. That’s our focus.

BENSON: But the result today realistically is that there will be nothing there in the terms you want?

BUTLER: Well Tony Abbott seems hell bent on making sure that instead of Australia being in a position to work constructively with the United States and China, he wants Australia to be one out, to be the only nation in the world to have entirely dismantled its climate change policy.

BENSON: Do you hold out any hopes of the crossbench doing something to prevent the changes that you don’t want to see go ahead? Do you have any plans for talks with Palmer United and others?

BUTLER: We’ve been talking to them and making our case very clearly. We’re the one party in this debate that has been absolutely steadfast during the election campaign and since in arguing for an Emissions Trading Scheme. Everyone knows Labor’s position, we’ll be arguing it again this week, and we’d love their support. They know our case and they’ll make up their own mind.

BENSON: Do you think everyone does know Labor’s position? Because the Government often points to you and says, ‘Labor doesn’t know where it is, it flip flops all over the place.’

BUTLER: Well, given the behaviour of the Government last week, that’s pretty rich frankly, given their complete incapacity to manage their own affairs in the Parliament. Our position has been crystal clear and steadfast, during the election campaign and since. We support the termination of the carbon tax but it must be replaced with a meaningful policy in this really critical area.

BENSON: Mark Butler, thank you very much.

BUTLER: Thank you Marius.