27-July-2009
Portfolio Media Releases, The Economy, Emissions Trading Scheme
Topics: ETS, Union push for ‘Buy Australia’ purchasing policy.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Andrew Robb, good morning and thank you for joining us.
ANDREW ROBB: Morning Virginia, nice to see to you.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Nice to see you. If Malcolm Turnbull does believe so strongly in these proposed changes that he’s mentioned publicly and now to the Prime Minister why not put them into legislation?
ANDREW ROBB: Well they are very clear set of principles and I hear what Lindsay Tanner and the government are saying and it as just disingenuous, these are very concrete set of propositions. In fact propositions which people can understand I think the government is trying to bury a lot of the debate in highly technical amendments and legalistic propositions you know it’s not difficult to have a discussion about whether we should have a scheme which offers at least the same measure of protection to Australian jobs as the United States. Jennie George said we should have that she didn’t think it was a platitude she thought it was a solid proposition. If you, if we can sit down and have discussion with the government on that sort of proposition and get some agreement, if they agree with us on that proposition then the amendments that would give effect to that they fall out very easily, they are then very obviously But first and foremost you have to settle you know is that a reasonable position that the community wants to adopt, the same with fugitive emissions for coal mines. That’s not a vague platitude that’s a serious proposition, the same with agriculture. Do we have agriculture in the cap or not? Do we have 28 million cattle measured for their emission each year and taxed or not? The Americans say not. Should we do the same? That’s a very clear proposition, it’s not a platitude, it’s not a vague proposition.
JOE O’BRIEN: Why can’t you go through the legislation that’s been proposed and the regulations and go one by one through them, cross out what you don’t want and add what you want and put that to the government and the government says yes or no? Why can’t you do that?
ANDREW ROBB: This is how we arrived at those principles. If you look back at all of our speeches in the House when this legislation was presented the concerns that we had and we have, the deep concerns we have and not only us but the Greens have got concerns about this scheme not delivering anywhere near the sort of emission reductions and abatements that should occur. Everyone is a critic of this legislation except the government. If we went through each of those propositions their highly technical who understands it? I don’t think anyone in the community, Penny Wong has failed totally to explain this legislation, how it works. We went through the technical issues and we developed all of the propositions that were of concern to us. Electricity prices, 30 to 40 per cent increase. In the US, half that right. In the US they are talking about excluding agriculture and allowing offsets, this legislation has the opposite. We went through all these issues we distilled them into a set of propositions and principles which the government now refuse, refused to even sit down on the table and talk to us. If Kevin Rudd thinks this is the biggest moral challenge in our life he should sit down and talk to us.
JOE O’BRIEN: With respect you just haven’t answered the question that I put to you. Why can’t you go through one by one and say what you want?
ANDREW ROBB: Well we have, I mean lets be serious about this. We need to have discussion that the community can understand, we can distil a whole, you know there’s 500 pages of legislation, 500 pages. And you know I defy most people to really understand how those 500 pages spell out a clear plan, you need to be able to distil, it is a very clear proposition. Should we have the same level of protection of Australian jobs as the United States that should be a starting right once you’ve decided that how you turn that into hundreds of pages of legislation is not a difficult task.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Alright, Andrew lets go back to first principles if we can in the last just couple of days the Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull has had to upbraid members of his own party about this situation and just whether everyone is going to be on the same page and in support of an ETS. Are you all in the same position now? Do you all believe in the need for an ETS or not?
ANDREW ROBB: Well there’s a range of views including in the government I think.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: The Government at least has a legislative position.
ANDREW ROBB: Well they have I agree with that. We had, we were the party that introduced a scheme ok. Malcolm Turnbull…
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: You don’t seem to be in that same place now as you were when you were once in government.
ANDREW ROBB: Well there is a scheme on the table which we think is fundamentally flawed that is going to not just only…
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Yes, but I am asking about the opposition position here about whether you are consistent.
ANDREW ROBB: Well we are the Opposition so we responding to a proposition that the government has put on the table. A very detailed proposition. We have said, you know that we are looking to support a price on carbon but we want a scheme that will work. This is the biggest structural change that this country, the biggest deliberate structural change that this country will ever have introduced. It is, this is a great moment… what we’re doing…
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Yes, but Andrew Robb… is this Opposition consistently unified in support of an ETS? The need for an ETS?
ANDREW ROBB: We are… we are… we are very supportive of the price of carbon. We introduced a scheme to do that. But we’re not going support a scheme which doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. If it doesn’t have any serious abatement of emissions… and everyone agrees this scheme which is currently on the table will do little or nothing to reduce emissions… little or nothing. And yet cost tens of thousands of jobs. That is… that is… that is not the way to pursue, you know, good policy for Australia. There is no good reason why we shouldn’t, you know, wait a few months on this vote and have the benefit of what’s happening in the United States… what’s happening around the world.
JOE O’BRIEN: But even if you wait a few months you’ll never get the Nationals in the same tent, will you?
ANDREW ROBB: Well I’m not… I’m not convinced of that at all. I mean… we are serious about good policy in this area. We are serious about a price of carbon. There are lots of important issues that we’ve got to grapple with here. But the Government is playing politics. We’ve put the onus now back on the Government. We’ve got a serious set of propositions – nine very explicit understandable propositions. The government needs to come to the table now and talk with us about these propositions.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Just finally this morning Andrew Robb, I just want to ask you a question without notice, but it’s parallel to the points you’re making today about wanting to protect Australian industry. Do you think that the Australian Labor Party and the government should listen to the major blue collar unions when they’re trying to get the government to accept that you would give a priority to Australian businesses and Australian products during this global downturn and I guess a slight return to protectionism there in not just trying to sure up Australian jobs. Should the Australian Government accept that push by the unions in your view?
ANDREW ROBB: They should listen to them, but not necessarily accept them.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: That makes for a comfortable discussion…
ANDREW ROBB: Well it’s like this emissions trading scheme. We should be on a level playing field with other countries.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: We never are though are we?
ANDREW ROBB: But if we put ourselves in a position where we are stopping the opportunity for a lot of companies overseas to sell to us, we may invite retaliatory action which stops other countries buying our products, and you know our life blood has been our exports.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: So the Government is right to be hesitant about this one.
ANDREW ROBB: I think the Government is right to be hesitant.
Media Contact: Nick Xerakias, 0410 417 173