E&OE….
Topics: IPCC Report, Emissions Reduction Fund, polls
MARK PARTON:
We’ve got the Environment Minister on the line right now. Hello Greg.
GREG HUNT:
And good morning Mark.
MARK PARTON:
Was he delivering those words to you?
GREG HUNT:
Well not to my knowledge. But I think it’s a message in particular for me about ocean acidification. What I do when I look at this report is say what am I very significantly concerned about? There’s been an increase of about 25% since 1750 in ocean acidification. That does have an impact on some of the shelled micro-organisms in the marine system. That has an impact on the food chain.
So that’s something I’m actually very focussed on. What’s the big picture here? We’re on track to meet our targets, we’re one of the few countries to have exceeded their targets significantly in the first round of the international agreement.
We’ve just invested in the last few days $2.55 billion in funds to help clean up the environment, as opposed to the Labor Party which says we didn’t want that investment of Government funds, instead we want an electricity tax which doesn’t work. So there are two different approaches but my focus here is what can we do protect the marine environment long term?
MARK PARTON:
Isn’t it interesting? Because the picture that you paint there sounds wonderful but if we talk about the Direct Action policy with, say, Mark Butler for arguments sake, he’s got a completely different perspective on it. He was on Insiders yesterday and here’s some of what he had to say.
[Audio Excerpt]
MARK PARTON:
There you go. The jury’s not out for Mark Butler. He’s well and truly decided that this is the wrong path.
GREG HUNT:
Look they want a carbon tax. They want to re-introduce higher electricity prices, that’s the way a carbon tax works. Doesn’t matter whether you call it a carbon tax or an ETS, it’s essentially a tax on electricity and gas and it’s all about making families and pensioners and small businesses pay.
We have a very different approach. One – because a carbon tax is not fair. Two – because it’s not effective and three – it was never promised. And so our approach is to invest in cleaning up the environment.
It is a very different approach to a massive electricity tax and it sounds as if they’re absolutely committed to making the next election another referendum on the carbon tax and I think the people were pretty comprehensive last time and let’s just get going on cleaning up the environment with practical investments rather than trying to force people to shiver through winter and swelter through summer.
MARK PARTON:
Is it absurd to be talking about eliminating use of fossil fuels within, what, eighty-five years from now?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I think any of us who are trying to predict what happens, you know, almost a century away in terms of energy use might be getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. What does matter is that we take practical progressive steps to be more efficient, to reduce emissions because you can clean up air quality if you’re reducing particulate pollution which is often associated with the sources of CO2 and methane because they’re related product.
Cleaning up landfills – these are all really practical things that you would want to do and improving our soils and improving our productivity. So we’re getting on with that. Doesn’t matter where you stand on the issue of climate change – I happen to be one that thinks it’s, you know, the science is clear, but other people can have different views.
But our approach supports a cleaner environment no matter where you stand. And it’s weird that Labor talks about this but just last week they opposed $2.55 billion for improving our farms, reducing our emissions, cleaning up our cities. So it doesn’t seem to be consistent and now they want to bring back a massive tax on household electricity.
MARK PARTON:
We’ve got a Fairfax/Ipsos poll out today which looks pretty good for the Coalition. It shows that you’re gaining electoral support. I think Tony Abbott, Bill Shorten neck and neck as preferred Prime Minister and it looks as though the nation approves of this, sort of, he-man approach to international affairs from your leader.
GREG HUNT:
Look, obviously there will be good and bad days in terms of the numerous polls. There may be another six or seven hundred that come out between now and the next election so I wouldn’t be too fussed either way.
As a Government we’ve made a real decision. As a cabinet we’ve sat and said we’re here to do a good job, we’re here to fix the Budget, there will be some unpopular decisions in that but if we do fix the Budget, things are much better for families and for pensioners and for young people in particular over the short and medium and long term.
And that’s what we set out to do and similarly we set out to help households by repealing the carbon tax and we set out to save literally not just hundreds, but thousands of lives at sea and there are lots of difficult decisions, but at the end of the day I think people expect their Government’s to make difficult decisions and it takes a little bit of time for that to be fully accepted, but we’re doing that process.
MARK PARTON:
Alright and finally Martin Miller, who, he must love you because every time you come on air he tweets us. He says ‘will Greg Hunt be sending some of his colleagues to the screening of Merchants of Doubt in Canberra tonight?’
GREG HUNT:
I’m sorry I don’t know the film so I apologise for.
MARK PARTON:
Ok never mind. We put the question and that’s fine. Thanks for coming on this morning, Greg.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks a lot.
(ENDS)