E&OE….
Topics: Bali Nine duo, Nepal earthquake, Emissions Reduction Fund
MARK PARTON:
I don’t know that Greg Hunt will understand either, he’s the Federal Environment Minister. Have you seen this video Greg?
GREG HUNT:
No, I hadn’t heard of it until you just played it then. I would say this, that our focus is clear and absolute, and it is the same as many other countries around the world whose nationals are also facing execution, and that is to seek a stay, to seek compassion, and to seek clemency. Sadly, six people have already been executed, five from other countries, one from Indonesia, and then we are now facing another round of executions.
I would hope that no Australian, no Australian, would through subtle, overt, or covert means try to politicise this domestically, because it would be the worst possible thing to do at the worst possible time. It would be (inaudible) to the families, and it would be deeply, deeply detrimental to our chances of – however slim they are – of finding an outcome in the next 24 hours. So we must be unified.
MARK PARTON:
Also this underlying theme of that whole video that somehow there’s a belief from the people that made it that the Prime Minister can just march on into Indonesia and grab them and take them to the airport and leave.
GREG HUNT:
Well this has been going on through successive governments. Of course these young men were imprisoned throughout the six years of the previous government, and no such outcome was achieved. Right now we are doing our absolute best with a ferocity of intent to try to bring some measure of hope – but I don’t want to overstate anything here in terms of outcome – but some measure of hope within the coming hours.
There are court proceedings underway, there have been deep allegations made – they should be respected. But all Australians should be focusing on Indonesia; because if this is in any way, shape, or form turned into a domestic political debate that would be a terrible, terrible mistreatment of these young men, and it would hurt rather than help their case.
MARK PARTON:
We’ve seen Tanya Plibersek on Q&A last night question your Government’s response to the disaster in Nepal. I’m not quite sure why. But I don’t know if…
Excerpt begins
TANYA PLIBERSEK:
And we welcome then support that has already been sent. But we have some very highly skilled professionals, and I know that they would be very eager to go and to offer support. There are reports of shortages of medicines and medical supplies, that’s another area where we might be able to help.
Excerpt ends
MARK PARTON:
But she apparently said that our support is pretty modest at five million, and … I don’t know, is she jumping the gun in that criticism? It’s early days.
GREG HUNT:
Yeah no, the way this works is there’s this sort of subtle implied criticism that there is a – there’s only compassion on one side.
GREG HUNT:
It’s frankly pretty shameful. This idea of using a humanitarian tragedy by Tanya Plibersek to make herself look better than other people is grubby. And I want to be pretty straightforward, I’m normally not as robust on this program, because you know, I don’t think that’s the way to go. But I just think that is grubby. We’ve made an initial contribution of $5 million; we’re working with the needs that the Nepalese and the United Nations are referring to Australia.
So we’ve also made the announcement in the last 24 hours that there will be an Australian military plane to help assist Australians who can’t get commercial flights leave Nepal. And that we’ve located over 1150 Australians who have been registered as unaccounted for, so this process of finding Australians from all walks of life – and sadly of course there has been an Australian tragedy in the Everest Base Camp area. So the Australian response – and I know this because – somebody close to our family was initially listed as missing.
MARK PARTON:
Really?
GREG HUNT:
My godson, who was in the Annapurna Base Camp area and I saw the way in which DFAT liaised with just one family, and numerous families had been dealt with immediately, so the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – I would say their response has been immediate, extraordinary, compassionate – and we always stand ready to do more but we’re working with the international community. And anybody who wants to politicise that is frankly grubby.
MARK PARTON:
All right. We’ve seen the Clean Energy Regulator hold the first auction with over half the proposed emission – what are they called, the…
GREG HUNT:
The Emissions Reduction Fund.
MARK PARTON:
Yeah yeah, that’s it. And 28 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalence coming from farm projects like not clearing trees or…
GREG HUNT:
Replanting, soil carbon, reforestation…
MARK PARTON:
Yeah, yeah. And it depends on who you listen to as to whether this was a success or not. I gather the people that made the video that we heard right at the start say it was an abject failure. But…
GREG HUNT:
Who was that?
MARK PARTON:
Like the people who are suggesting that the execution of Andrew and Myuran is Tony Abbott’s fault. But I mean, genuinely – this is difficult to follow if you’re not actually involved in the area. And I know that you as Environment Minister are trumpeting a great success here.
GREG HUNT:
Look, the simple answer is that during the entire carbon tax experiment, emissions were at an absolute best case reduced by 12 million tons. In the first auction, we’ve just reduced four times that – 47 million tons of emissions reduction. So if you care about reducing emissions, if you care about climate change, you should be welcoming it. That’s the simple answer. There are some on the left who care more about politics than reducing emissions.
And if you care about economics, you should also be welcoming it, because it’s been done at a cost of about one-ninety-third or less than one-ninetieth of the $1,300 per ton of emissions reduced under the carbon tax. It’s a stunning result both in terms of volume and value for money – reducing emissions – and if you don’t see that climate change is an issue, and I would reject that view myself – you can embrace the fact that it’s economic efficiency, productivity, and good local environmental outcomes such as better land protection.
MARK PARTON:
Sounds sensible to me. It really does. Greg, thanks for coming on and talking about it this morning.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks mate.
MARK PARTON:
Greg Hunt, the Federal Environment Minister.
(ENDS)