CONFUSED CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY FAILS AUSTRALIA ON ALL COUNTS

Media Release

Mark Butler MP.

Shadow Minister for Environment
 Climate Change and Water

Date:  11 June 2015

While federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt tried to resurrect Tony Abbott’s favourite scare campaign in his Talking Point article (Mercury, May 26), his department fronted Senate Estimates hearings to expose Mr Abbott’s own carbon tax — the highest in the world. 

Confirming what Labor and analysts have long been saying of the Emissions Reduction Fund, Clean Energy Regulator chief executive Chloe Munro said that of the 44.4 million tonnes of carbon abatement purchased in the first round of the ERF auction 34.4 million tonnes were from pre-existing projects. 

So, in actual fact, Mr Hunt spent $660 million of taxpayers’ money to buy just 10 million tonnes of carbon abatement, at $66 per tonne. 

To use his word, Mr Hunt’s deception is “stunning”. 

One main beneficiary of ERF funding is AGL, Australia’s biggest polluter. It received taxpayers’ money to undertake landfill gas projects that, in many cases, have been operating for 10 years. 

At the same time, AGL is free to increase its carbon pollution from other arms of its business, such as the coal-fired generators, because Mr Abbott repealed the legal cap on carbon pollution that would have restrained this. 

Mr Abbott prosecuted the most mendacious and relentless scare campaign in Australia’s history when he criticised Labor’s Clean Energy Package as a “wrecking ball through the economy”. 

None of the doomsday scenarios he predicted – ranging from the ridiculous (“$100 roast lambs”) to the laughable (“Whyalla wipe out”) – eventuated. 

Australian families are still waiting for their promised $550. Instead, Mr Abbott’s cruel cuts to family payments in this year’s Budget will take about $6000 that families will need to cover. 

Mr Abbott’s alternative policy of paying big polluters to do things they were already doing has been lambasted by analysts as woefully inadequate. 

The first ERF auction used a quarter of the available funds to achieve less than 15 per cent of the abatement required to meet Australia’s emissions reduction target of 5 per cent on 2000 levels. 

And that’s assuming those contracts do as they are intended – currently, there’s no way of monitoring that as the Government has not finalised its safeguards mechanism yet. 

Following the release of the auction results, the Grattan Institute said Direct Action was “not fit for purpose”. 

The Australian Industry Group said the Government would need to increase its budget from $2.55 billion to $20 billion just to meet the 5 per cent target and even financial beneficiaries AGL cast doubt on its future effectiveness saying the policy needs to be longer-term focus. 

The Abbott Government and Mr Hunt are trying their hardest, as they did on these pages last month, to deceive Australians about Labor’s policy. Labor has made it clear a fixed price on carbon will not be part of our plan.

Our plan is about fairness and meaningful action on climate change. Not only will it work, but it will not line the pockets of Australia’s electricity companies. 

Labor will place a legal cap on carbon pollution, that reduces over time. 

It will be underpinned by a market mechanism that lets business work out the cheapest and most effective way to operate within that cap. 

This is the model being adopted by our closest trading partners. 

China has seven emissions trading schemes in place, with plans to move to a national scheme. Our third largest export partner, South Korea, moved to a national emissions trading scheme this year, among many others. 

Labor will also have an ambitious renewable energy plan. Bill Shorten has said if we’re elected in 2016, we’ll top up the 2020 Renewable Energy Target. 

I have begun consultation with industry, the finance sector and other stakeholders about Labor’s post-2020 renewable energy policy, with a view to see an increased role for more renewables in Australia’s energy market. 

If Mr Abbott wants to fight the next election over effective action on climate change, fairness and value for taxpayers and transitioning Australia to a clean energy economy, I say bring it on.