E&OE….
Topics: Carbon Farming Initiative
TOM ELLIOTT:
Greg Hunt is the Federal Environment Minister. He joins us now. Mr Hunt, good afternoon.
GREG HUNT:
And good afternoon Tom.
TOM ELLIOTT:
So what was the guts of the deal you did yesterday with Clive Palmer, because he’s previously described your Direct Action plan as a waste of money?
GREG HUNT:
Look, it was actually a very simple deal and that was we worked with him and with Senator Madigan and Senator Muir from Victoria to repeal the carbon tax. We did that. We always said that the second part would be to replace it with an Emissions Reduction Fund.
That Fund, instead of raising the price of electricity and gas, simply focuses on practical things that reduce emissions such as Indigenous land management, cleaning up power stations, energy efficiency on a grand scale, improving soils by increasing the volume of carbon, looking at vegetation coverage. So really practical, sensible things…
TOM ELLIOTT:
So I read that anybody can apply. So if I, for example, had a good idea how to reduce emissions would the Government pay me to do that?
GREG HUNT:
No not for riding your bike to work I’m sorry…
TOM ELLIOTT:
But it does reduce emissions compared to driving a car.
GREG HUNT:
It’s for practical, measurable emissions reduction. What we’re looking to do is make sure that anybody can apply, but they have to be able to verify the emissions reduction on a reasonable scale.
TOM ELLIOTT:
And so how – so you pay them? Do you pay them per units of emissions or dare I say it…
GREG HUNT:
Correct.
TOM ELLIOTT:
What’s the price?
GREG HUNT:
What we’re doing is – it will be a competitive auction so the same way that the Government sometimes buys water, we will buy the lowest cost emissions reductions and we’ll do it through an auction. So it could be cleaning up waste methane from dairies, it could be cleaning up waste landfill gas such as the Brookland Green…
TOM ELLIOTT:
So basically – so businesses and whatever say look we reckon we’ve come up with a way to reduce emissions at a cost of, I don’t know, $10 a tonne of CO2 and you look at all those plans and say righto well we’ve got a whole lot here that’ll do it lower than, you know, $15 a tonne, we will subsidise those activities.
GREG HUNT:
Let me give you an example. In Victoria at the moment there are already 19 projects operating on, under this basis. You’ve got the Brookland Landfill Gas Project in Brimbank, you’ve got the Bendigo Landfill Gas Project, you have things such as the in the Wedderburn region, Green Fleet has been putting in place…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Ok so there’s lots of plans and now you can start…
GREG HUNT:
…and these are all operating and existing, but this will be expanded significantly.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Alright. Now I understand that part of the deal with Clive Palmer is that you leave in place both the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Is that – was that just a sop to him? I mean do these bodies actually have a role anymore?
GREG HUNT:
Well look the fact of the matter is that it’s impossible to abolish either of them without parliamentary support in the Senate.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Ok.
GREG HUNT:
And the Greens and Labor won’t do it and without his support it’s impossible to do it. So it’s simply a fact of the matter that we won’t proceed…
TOM ELLIOTT:
But do they have anything to do?
GREG HUNT:
…abolition of the Climate Change Authority because we can’t. Well we are giving the Climate Change Authority a role and really the heart of the agreement was that he would drop his proposal for an Emissions Trading Scheme, we would get our push for the Emissions Reduction Fund to go and actually do practical things to clean up the environment and that as a gesture of good faith we would allow the Climate Change Authority to do a review of what the rest of the world is doing in this space.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Ok so I understand there’s an 18 month investigation. So, ok so you’re spending money to investigate other country’s emissions trading schemes. Given that you don’t want an Emissions Trading Scheme, what will you do with that research?
GREG HUNT:
Well look, it’s something that will have its role, but our position is absolutely clear. We’ve just abolished the carbon tax and we’re not about to reinstitute it whether you call it a carbon tax or an ETS.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Alright well we’re not going to have it so why research it?
GREG HUNT:
Well this body itself was not going to be abolished. People were going to be sitting around and without a mandate this was what Mr Palmer wanted to deal with…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Ok so that’s what it is but surely just because a bunch of civil servants are going to sit around…
GREG HUNT:
…central process of the Emissions Reduction Fund. One of our two fundamental outcomes that we were seeking from the election. Abolition of the carbon tax, implementation of the Emissions Reduction Fund and he wanted a review. So that was a reasonable…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Ok so he’s given a review…
GREG HUNT:
…that was a reasonable exchange.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Can I ask how much this review is likely to cost, or how much is budgeted?
GREG HUNT:
Well it’s not likely to have any net impact at all because they were simply not willing to abolish the Climate Change Authority so it would have existed in any event.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Ok so…
GREG HUNT:
So we’re making use of a body which was going to be there. Yes we would have abolished it, but no that option simply wasn’t available.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Ok so because of an obstruction in the Senate you can’t abolish the Climate Change Authority, as a result you’ve charged them with this job of reviewing other country’s emissions trading schemes, but there are absolutely no plans to ever have an Emissions Trading Scheme, so it’s just, you know, it’s like painting rocks or, you know, one person digging holes and the next person filling them up.
GREG HUNT:
There were two enormous things. Getting rid of a $36 billion carbon tax – that had a profound impact on people’s electricity and gas bills, on small businesses and manufacturing. That’s happened and we’ve seen reductions of up to 12.4% in electricity bills in Victoria compared with what it otherwise would have been. And the second part was to do practical things to clean up the environment and reduce emissions through the Emissions Reduction Fund and that’s…
TOM ELLIOTT:
No, no well that’s all good but it just…
GREG HUNT:
…that’s happening.
TOM ELLIOTT:
It disturbs me though that there’s a group of public servants sitting around in Canberra about to spend a year and a half researching something that will never see the light of day. I mean that is costing money…
GREG HUNT:
No, well it will be published…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Oh well it will be published and it’ll be used as a doorstop somewhere in Parliament House, but I mean, you know, that is a waste of money, isn’t it?
GREG HUNT:
Well, let’s be very, very clear here – we took a proposal to the Senate to abolish the Climate Change Authority. Labor and the Greens keep voting to keep it. There wasn’t support from the Palmer Party and then the arrangement to have two of our signature policies put in place, the repeal of the carbon tax, the implementation of a very practical Emissions Reduction Fund which will clean up cities, allow energy efficiency on a grand scale, was that given this body was staying in anyway, to use it to do this research.
TOM ELLIOTT:
An essentially useless task. Alright, it wouldn’t be the only one in Canberra. When is the vote on all this due?
GREG HUNT:
Look, the Senate is starting their debate later today I’m told. I always leave Senate matters to the Senators because if you make a prediction about the Senate then they tend to be upset, so the best thing to do is to let the Senate run its course and we’d like it done as quickly as possible, but they’ll debate it fully and…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Before Christmas?
GREG HUNT:
Look I’d like to have it done sooner but I just wouldn’t ever predict the timing on the Senate. But what does it really mean? Carbon tax gone, Emissions Reduction Fund in place, emissions reduced, family budgets are better off.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Greg Hunt, Federal Environment Minister, thank you for your time.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks very much Tom.
(ENDS)