2014-11-03
Heather Bruer
Last July Palmer and the government tore down our scheme which required the polluter to pay. Under that scheme Mr Palmer's company Queensland Nickel, for example, would have paid a pollution bill over $8 million last year. Now, it won't pay a cent. Instead, it could apply for a Direct Action subsidy from the $2.5 billion Direct Action Emissions Reduction Fund and be handsomely paid to apparently reduce emissions.
Farcically, Palmer is still trying to convince us that he cares about climate change. While he has claimed credit for negotiating for the Climate Change Authority (CCA) to investigate Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) as part of the deal he struck on Direct Action, this is a lame duck outcome. The government has already said it won't give any consideration to the recommendations of this extensive report when it is finally released.
But even if the government did take notice, Palmer has made sure that the ETS model he is proposing will never actually come into being. By insisting that Australia's major trading partners, including India, institute their own ETS before Australia acts, Palmer has pulled a swift one on the Australian public. He wants to claim the credit for building climate architecture, while also ensuring that his own companies won't have to bear the costs for their pollution.
Only a few months ago, Palmer described Direct Action as "an ineffective policy and a waste of money at a time when families, pensioners, young Australians, stay-at-home mums, single parents and our Indigenous communities are facing unfair measures in the budget". He was right about that, which makes his Direct Action dirty deal with the LNP even more inexcusable.
This all brings us back to the fact that our previous price on pollution was in fact an ETS, and that the policy was working. Emissions had been falling, particularly in the electricity generating sector. But now the reverse is occurring.
Under Direct Action the big polluters simply put out their hands for taxpayers' dollars. The superficial emissions reduction projects funded in this way are simple measures that the big polluters could and should be undertaking independently. Now, they are payed to do so with no consequences if they fail to spend the money on new and additional emissions reduction projects.
The Greens are also deeply troubled that Direct Action will subsidise the cutting and burning of native forests for electricity generation. The native forest logging industry is environmentally disastrous and has long been struggling to survive in the global marketplace. But it has been lobbying hard to find new ways to keep on logging, and Direct Action lets them put their hands in the taxpayer's pocket so that they can continue their destruction. It's disgraceful.
The world faces a climate crisis and according to the CCA we need a 19 per cent reduction target by 2020 to do our minimum fair share in solving it. Meanwhile, the Liberal and Labor parties both have a pitifully inadequate 5 per cent reduction target.
Research from Reputex suggested Direct Action would struggle to achieve even a third of the unambitious 5 per cent target set by the government. This looks even more pathetic when compared to higher targets in line with Australia's commitment to help cap global warming to two degrees.
We have a responsibility to secure a safe and livable climate for future generations. The Greens know that Australia needs a system where the biggest polluters pay for their pollution. As the rest of the world leaps to take action on climate change and develop the technologies of the future, we risk being left behind. That's why we need to take the power back from Tony Abbott and the big polluters. Let's do it.
Heather Bruer is a climate change campaigner in Senator Christine Milne's office.