The opposition Labor Party shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, has issued a stark warning before the coming federal election campaign, declaring the Australian parliament must end the stalemate and back Labor’s climate policy in the event it wins power, or politicians will betray the next generation.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, Mr Butler said the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP) commitment to reduce emissions by 45 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 was a “rock solid commitment”.
Mr Butler said it was not an “aspiration” or “something that would be nice to achieve”, add that voters were more agitated now about climate action than he has ever seen during his time as a member of parliament.
Mr Butler said the conservative Liberal-National government of the Prime Minister Scott Morrison was lining up to deploy “tired old scare campaigns” about carbon taxes in the coming campaign.
“What I see as I get around the country after a very angry summer, the hottest summer we have ever had, is Australians are sick of it”.
He argues voters are in a mood to punish the Liberal-National government if it defaults to wrecking and hyperbole over the coming weeks.
“The consciousness, the level of expectation for this building, for the Australian parliament to do better on climate change is greater than I’ve ever seen, I think it’s greater than it was in 2007.
“People are increasingly seeing the impacts of climate change, they are seeing the urgent clear advice from scientists that this is a climate emergency.
“We have to stop having these petty political fights.
“ We need to stop responding to (former Liberal-National Prime Minister) Tony Abbott’s playbook and actually start putting some serious policy in place.”
Mr Butler indicated Labor would pursue as much of the policy, outlined in it’s leader Bill Shorten’s budget reply speech and a policy announcement, as it could without triggering “a drawn out legislative battle”, meaning by regulation, and by working within existing mechanisms.
He also predicted the Australian Greens Party would be punished by its supporters if they refused to support Labor’s climate policy on the basis of insufficient ambition.
The Guardian Australia reports the Australian Greens, led by Senator Richard DiNatale, outlined its own climate policy before Labor to define some of the boundaries of policy ambition post-election, and had already signalled they could oppose one element of Labor’s climate plan, allowing heavy polluters to use international permits to meet their emissions reduction targets.
Mr Butler said that was a backflip on the position the Australian Greens took during the implementation of the carbon price in the 43rd parliament under then Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
“They supported the use of permits when we were last in government, it was a central feature of the clean energy package they signed up to but now, apparently, that’s an abomination.
He said if the Liberal-Nationals lost the coming federal election, and Mr Abbott lost his seat, that could create the conditions for the Liberal Party to come back to the table on climate change.
He also predicted if the Australian Greens opposed the policy on the basis it was not perfect, “that would be an extraordinary decision, frankly, for the Australian Greens to take”.
The shadow climate change minister said Australia had now lost five years, with emissions rising when they should have been falling.
“If Labor is elected at the next election, I think the gravity of responsibility of the next parliament to do something here should not be under-estimated.
“If the next Labor government is not allowed to make serious changes in this area, I hate to think where Australia is going to be in 2030.
“I hate to think of the scale of betrayal to our children and grandchildren if, for politics, our government, if we are elected at the next election, is prevented from implementing this policy.”
Labor’s policy involves boosting the existing safeguards mechanism to impose more stringent pollution reduction standards on heavy emitters, and imposing a new pollution regulation on car retailers “in line with” 105gCO2/km for light vehicles, which will drive the uptake of electric vehicles.
“Emissions reduction is now no longer an option. Emissions reduction is now a must do for emissions intensive businesses.”
Mr Butler said he would like to remain in the climate portfolio in the event of an election win, but adds whether he does is a matter for Mr Shorten.
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