The Dreyfus Files -The Age
Overnight at the London School of Economics, opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull noted the "furious discord of Australian politics in 2011", a clear reference to his Coalition colleagues' reduction of the debate on climate change to slogans and soundbites.
Where evidence, facts and reason should be the basis of a robust discussion on climate change action, the Coalition have clouded the debate with misinformation, confusion and confected outrage.
Australia's role in reducing carbon pollution to tackle climate change is a matter of national importance. When debating matters of national importance, members of Parliament have a responsibility to the people of Australia to base our arguments on evidence and facts and to protect our prosperity and way of life now and for future generations.
Since the Labor government announced a framework for a carbon pricing mechanism, we have methodically undertaken analysis and presented evidence showing a carbon price is the most economically efficient and environmentally effective way of cutting carbon pollution. Evidence that includes support for market-based emissions trading from most economists in Australia and overseas. Just this week, more highly esteemed economists and scientists wrote to Prime Minister Julia Gillard outlining their support for Australia's Clean Energy Future policy.
In contrast, the opposition's contribution to the debate has been big on misinformation and outright lies, all the while not providing any further detail on their so-called Direct Action plan. The member for Tangney, Dr Dennis Jensen, with a doctorate in ceramics engineering, is one of those in opposition who continues to pollute the debate with distortions of the facts. Drawing from a Liberal Party cheat sheet of climate change deception, Dr Jenson outrageously claimed recently that there has been no warming in the past decade.
What Dr Jensen fails to note is the scientific evidence that temperatures have warmed and are continuing their upwards trend. Satellite observations of the temperature at the Earth’s surface and in the lower atmosphere have shown warming over the past three decades. Dr Jensen would only need to check with the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world, for this evidence.
Bert van Manen, the member for Forde in Queensland, has also repeated the Coalition's misinformation that the carbon price legislation has been "deliberately designed to transfer by 2020 up to $3.5 billion per annum of the wealth of our mining boom overseas to pay for carbon credits to offset our increasing emissions".
This is a misleading claim designed to foster protectionism and xenophobia. Mr van Manen only has to talk to some Australian businesses, rather than reading from the Liberal Party cheat sheet, to find out that business want opportunities to cut carbon pollution at the lowest cost.
The Coalition has also been talking down our economy, repeating their slogan that now is a bad time to introduce a carbon price. Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop made sure she said it in her speech on the Clean Energy Future bills. This slogan is designed to create fear and instability while further exposing the Coalition's true colours – that they're not serious about acting on climate change.
If they were serious, they would know that climate change has been debated in Australia's parliament for more than two decades. Since 1988, there have been no less than 36 Parliamentary inquiries. Business needs the certainty of a carbon price, our economy needs the certainty of a carbon price, our environment needs the certainty of a carbon price, and we know that further delay will only increase uncertainty and costs down the track.
Another Coalition slogan that has been repeated ad nauseam is ''domestic pain for no global gain''. The member for Bennelong, John Alexander, was one of many in the Coalition that used that slogan in his speech on the Clean Energy Future bills.
Australia is the biggest emitter of carbon pollution per capita among developed countries and one of 14 countries, including Britain, Canada and Italy, all with similar emissions levels, that together produce 20 per cent of the world's emissions. Not only do we have an obligation to act as a global citizen with influential power, but by making the move now to a low-carbon pollution world, Australia's economy will be well-placed for a world that will rely less on carbon.
Greg Hunt, the Opposition's climate spokesman, who used to believe in market-based mechanisms and in fact supported an emissions trading scheme proposed by the Howard government, has used more tired slogans in his comparison with the European Union's emissions trading scheme.
What he failed to mention is that the European Union emissions trading scheme (the EU ETS) is much larger than Australia's will be. Anyone who claims differently is not comparing like with like.
The value of auctioned and freely allocated permits in the EU ETS is much larger than the value of those proposed under the Australian carbon price. Estimates of the value of the EU ETS over the period 2013 to 2019 put it at about $330 billion. This is far in excess of the permits that will be available under Australia's carbon price mechanism.
What has been made clear by the Coalition speeches on the Government's Clean Energy Future legislation is that Tony Abbott and his opposing party have no interest in having a rational policy debate or contributing to this national discussion. They simply want to turn their backs on the advice of scientists and economists, and take no real or effective action on climate change.
