E&OE….
Topics: Emissions Reduction Fund
GREG HUNT:
The Coalition has delivered on our promise to repeal the carbon tax and to reduce electricity prices for the Australian people. We have delivered on our promise to implement an Emissions Reduction Fund to ensure that there is real and practical action to achieve our emissions goals and targets without a carbon tax.
We said that we would repeal the carbon tax and we have. We said that we would reduce electricity and gas prices, and we have. We said that we would implement an Emissions Reduction Fund and we have.
At every stage the Labor Party has opposed these actions. At every stage the Labor Party said it would be impossible to do it. And they were wrong. By contrast to what we said and have done the Labor Party went to 2010 saying they wouldn’t have a carbon tax and deceived the Australian people.
They went to the 2013 election saying that they would terminate the carbon tax and they voted to keep it. They have not been honest with the Australian people, they did not implement a policy that was effective, they intentionally increased the cost of living for Australian families and they intentionally drove up the price of operating for Australian businesses.
Our goal and our pledge has been to decrease the cost of living for Australian families, to decrease the cost of operations for Australian businesses, but to implement a way of reducing emissions which is precisely what we have done.
The Emissions Reduction Fund has been policy since 2nd February 2010. It’s now been voted through by the Senate and I thank the Senate for that support. We sought the will and mandate of the Australian people. They voted to support repeal, they voted to support the Emissions Reduction Fund. We did what we said we would do.
Now our task is to ensure that we implement fully but today, after the Australian people have expressed their will and given their mandate, after the Senate and the House of Representatives have voted, I call on Bill Shorten to reject a carbon tax and to accept the will of the people. I call on Bill Shorten to say that he realises now is not the time for higher electricity and gas prices.
It’s time for lower electricity bills, not for higher electricity bills, it’s time for Mr Shorten to accept the will of the people, to allow Australians to have certainty and to acknowledge that the Emissions Reduction Fund has been passed and is the way of the future.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Hunt, will you publicly release modelling that shows how the Emissions Reduction Fund will reach the five percent targets as the public wants to see?
GREG HUNT:
We will in fact be releasing the updates on targets over the coming months and I think what you will find is that that will be a very positive surprise, a very positive step in terms of Australia reducing our emissions. The early indications…
JOURNALIST:
Will your department be doing that or independent agencies?
GREG HUNT:
This has always been done by the department but it’s subject to verification and all the early advice I have is that there are very positive signs there.
JOURNALIST:
Do you mean by that you’re talking about the emission projections, right? But will you be releasing modelling of your plan to reduce emissions?
GREG HUNT:
We will have more to say on that and let me be absolutely clear. When the updates, the official updates come out they will be done as they have always been done with a process of analysis and verification and what we are doing is achieving our targets.
It’s important to remember that Australia was one of the only countries in the world to significantly exceed their international commitments. We said that we would be able to do that without a carbon tax. Australia did do that without a carbon tax other than for the last six months of the whole Kyoto One period.
What we see now is that along the way everybody said, or the Labor Party said, you could never repeal the carbon tax and they were wrong. They said you could never reduce electricity prices and they were wrong, they said you could never pass the Emissions Reduction Fund and they were wrong. And now they’ll say you’ll never achieve your targets and they’re still wrong.
JOURNALIST:
Sorry Mr Hunt, just to be clear, are you modelling the operation of Direct Action, not our projected emissions, but the operation of Direct Action on those emissions?
GREG HUNT:
Well obviously we’re always doing work on that and a lot of this, of course, is commercial-in-confidence because it includes prices that we would be assuming we wouldn’t want to pre-empt an auction process because that wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
But let’s be clear. We’ve been through a Green Paper process, a White Paper process, a draft legislative process, a legislative process, a negotiation process and whereas we took a policy to the 2010 election and the 2013 election, which we have implemented, on both occasions, the Labor Party said there wouldn’t be a carbon tax or they’d terminate the carbon tax.
They haven’t been up-front with the Australian people. We couldn’t be clearer and so I’m very happy with how things are going.
JOURNALIST:
Are you saying you’re modelling Direct Action but you aren’t able to release it because of the commercial…
GREG HUNT:
No, no, look, we will release revised projections in the coming months which will include the elements here.
JOURNALIST:
I’m asking about the operation of Direct Action, are you modelling that? First question, and second, are you able to release the modelling, if you are?
GREG HUNT:
Obviously we will – we’re doing work every day and week. We’re focussing on our targets and achieving our targets. What the Labor Party wants is for us to release commercial-in-confidence information in terms of projected prices. You wouldn’t pre-empt your own auction, you don’t do that in the water space and you wouldn’t do it here.
JOURNALIST:
But when you say doing work, do you mean you’re doing modelling?
GREG HUNT:
Of course we do precisely that analysis and let me say this – there is always a game with the ALP. It’s always something else. There’s always a diversion. Three things have happened since we’ve set out a conservative policy. Firstly, we’ve had a decrease in the price that we expected to have to pay for abatement.
Secondly, we’ve had an increase in the available pipeline. We have a very significant pipeline already of potential abatement and thirdly, what we have is a lower target to achieve. Our target has almost halved since the policy was put in place because we had very conservative expectations.
Australia’s electricity has been lower than expected because sadly manufacturing has been going offshore and that is not something that we would want to encourage but it’s a reality. And what we want to do is ensure that we can achieve growth and productivity but with a lower carbon footprint and we’ll do that.
JOURNALIST:
Would you be willing to subject your projections to scientific policy? We know your position. But how do voters know that the Emissions Reduction Fund will work without any scientific facts behind it?
GREG HUNT:
We’ve just achieved all of the things that people said we would never do and so…
JOURNALIST:
But where are the numbers behind it?
GREG HUNT:
Well we just put out a Green Paper and a White Paper. They include analysis. I would urge you to go back to read the Green Paper and White Paper and the analysis there.
Let’s be absolutely clear here. We will achieve our targets and we will do it using this fund rather than a carbon tax, but we will achieve our targets.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, now that you have achieved this, how early do you expect RET negotiations, and when do you expect that to be resolved?
GREG HUNT:
So there are a number of things on the agenda now. In terms of the Renewable Energy Target, we are working constructively and in good faith with the ALP. I appreciate that. In other areas we have major disagreements.
In that area we are working well with Mark Butler and Gary Gray and Chris Bowen. I won’t put a time-frame on it. It is a good-faith negotiation. Obviously I’d like it to be done as quickly as possible, but we need to get the right outcome.
Secondly, we’re working in terms of the clean land space as well as the clean air. In terms of clean land, I’m absolutely passionate about what we’re doing with threatened species. There is a real chance to make a difference in Australia and that’s a huge important task for me over the coming year.
And then thirdly, in terms of clean water, we want to implement the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement, and we want to ensure that this once in a century change we’ve had with the disposal of dredge spoil being taken out of the marine park is continued.
Those are really big important environmental goals and we’re going to continue the reform tasks of ensuring that we have high standards, but simplified approvals. Just this week, in the midst of all of this, we’ve achieved and signed the agreements with Tasmania and Victoria on the One-Stop Shops, and that’s a tremendous outcome.
We’ve achieved the trillion dollars for approvals, and so reform, high standards, threatened species, the Barrier Reef, and the Renewable Energy Target – they’re the key things.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, will the Government be willing to accept a RET negotiation outcome which put the Target in the 30,000 range?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I won’t speculate, out of fairness to the ALP or in relation to our own position. I think both sides have operated in good faith and I won’t pre-empt that.
Thanks very much.
(ENDS)