27-May-2009
Portfolio Media Releases, Emissions Trading Scheme
Topics: Emissions Trading Scheme.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Andrew Robb, good morning and thank you for joining us.
ANDREW ROBB: Good morning, Virginia.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: If the Coalition has agreed to support the Government’s carbon reduction targets, why should we wait for Copenhagen to determine the detail of our domestic scheme?
ANDREW ROBB: Well the main thing at Copenhagen is to negotiate an objective, a target that the world will commit to. That is the principal objective and in fact overnight at a major business forum in Copenhagen organised by the UN body which will coordinate the whole Copenhagen conference, the executive secretary of that UN body said that there is no need to finalise legislation before Copenhagen. He said that in response to an explicit question put to him and it does, I think, expose the political agenda of the Federal Government in rushing this scheme through. They want to, almost inviting people to block what is a deeply flawed scheme for political purposes when the head of the UN body organising Copenhagen is saying quite explicitly there is no need to finalise legislation before Copenhagen.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: I return to my original observation, which I don't think you quite addressed, and that is, that if you are prepared to agree with, to sign off on the target, the reduction target that the Government will take to Copenhagen, then in a bipartisan way the two sides of politics should be able to start talking about the method, the form in which that reduction is achieved.
ANDREW ROBB: Well we have been engaging on that process now for 12 months,
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: No, you have just been nay saying as far as I can see.
ANDREW ROBB: The bottom line is as your introduction observed, there is no-one, it's not just us, the Greens think this is deeply flawed, they are going to vote it down, the independent Senators think it's deeply flawed, many Green groups, many business groups, so many people are imploring the Government to get down and make changes to a deeply flawed scheme. We can't have a scheme come in which costs tens of thousands of jobs, kills investment and does nothing, in fact, for reducing CO2 emissions.
What we are saying is the Copenhagen conference tells the world the level of commitment around the world, and gives a sort of time frame and an ability to adjust any scheme to accommodate the rate of progress around the world. The United States who will in fact dictate really in the end what most of the world does, they are the biggest emitter, they are the wealthiest country, they are now engaged, they are now well advanced with legislation, it will be close to finalised I think by the end of the year. We are saying commonsense suggests you now have a target, you have a united position on targets. We’ve given you that, we share that, what we are saying to the Government is go to Copenhagen with that target, have a negotiating position, and then come back and look at what the United States has done, what the world has decided, and then fix up the flaws that are in your scheme.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Alright, so how would you propose then to meet the targets that you have just supported?
ANDREW ROBB: Well we have been very assiduously looking to improve and develop a scheme or contribute to the development of the Government's scheme. We have commissioned a major independent study which said there's a series of analysis that need to be done, can be done, should have been done. Can be done in the next six months, now the Government’s delayed the start date. There's no imperative to have this thing finalised in June, all that will do is lead to a scheme which is deeply flawed and will probably result in community support diminishing for any scheme if they bring this scheme in. We are saying do this analysis and see if we can correct the deep flaws in your scheme as a means of addressing this issue.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: So you then don't have a proposal for how you'd meet those targets? You are talking there about commissioning more investigations, more analysis.
ANDREW ROBB: No quite the contrary. Yesterday we put on the table a proposal for a Government-authorised voluntary scheme with bankable credits. That, by the Australian - the Australian exchange have said that would deliver the 5% targets, it would result in major activity towards sequestration and abatement activity across the country, there is something that could start on January 1 next year, which would see an immediate response on so many areas, including renewables, that is a proposal that we’ve put on the table. The Government has not even responded in any sense to that because they know it would deliver immediate action which would deliver 5% targets in its own right before you even finalise any sort of Emissions Trading Scheme, so we have put a very constructive position on the table. We have told the Government what process they can undertake to develop a scheme which is robust, which will not cost tens of thousands of jobs and which will lead to significant cuts in emissions, that's the process they should pursue.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: It is true isn’t it, Andrew Robb, that when it comes to the future of any Emissions Trading Scheme in this country, and your leader Malcolm Turnbull has been ferociously in support of one for some time, that you don't have unanimous agreement in your party to support any kind of Emissions Trading Scheme, do you, not unanimous support?
ANDREW ROBB: That’s not true. What we had yesterday in the party room, was a united view that the scheme that the Government - they are the Government, they are the Government. We have been looking at the scheme that they have been proposing and we have been seeking to make suggestions, we made a series of suggestions over many months about how they can correct the deep flaws in the scheme that they are developing, we had a united view shared which I think shared by the Greens in this country, that this scheme is deeply flawed.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: No, I am asking something different there Andrew Robb. I've heard you make that point several times this morning. It’s that there's not a unanimous Coalition position an ETS at all, which means it doesn't matter what the Government comes back to you saying, it needs the Coalition support on this to get it through the Senate, you can't give it to the Government because you are not united on an Emissions Trading Scheme, Wilson Tuckey says he wouldn’t support a Emissions Trading Scheme under any circumstances.
ANDREW ROBB: Virginia, yesterday we had a unanimous agreement to advocate and move quickly for the introduction of a voluntary carbon market in this country which could start on January 1 next year, 2010 and it could deliver the 5% target. It puts a lie to the Government suggestion that we have put nothing forward of any constructive nature. It's far more substantive than waiting another two years for the start of a scheme that they are proposing one at the moment that is deeply flawed. There are things that can be done immediately. We are the ones that have advocated that. We will want to see a robust scheme. Bear in mind we had an Emissions Trading Scheme on the table 12 months before this Government's first effort. Even that scheme had features in it which were far more sensible than what we see in this Government scheme. The trouble all along, there is a political agenda here, there's a take it or leave it approach. They won't listen to the Greens they won’t listen to the Coalition, they are saying the legislation must be through, yet overnight those running, the UN people running the Copenhagen conference said legislation does not need to be finalised before the Copenhagen conference, they understand that the first step must be to see what is the extent of commitment around the world, and then the schemes subsequently being developed will align with that level of commitment, will take account of the staged approach of different countries coming into some sort of program over the next few years.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Andrew Robb, good to have you on the program this morning, Thank you.
Media Contact: Stuart Eaton, 0433 298 620