2016-09-01
MR BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — The Labor Party went to the election with no policy in relation to unconventional gas, but after a couple of years of pondering they have decided to adopt the Greens policy, which is to permanently ban it.
[Speech was interrupted.]
Mr BARBER — You are welcome. I recently read that the Premier said we should be going to zero emissions by 2050. The Premier had little choice in that after the rest of the world's leaders in fact said that it is urgent that we cut emissions in order to at least keep world temperatures below a 2-degree rise and preferably closer to 1.5 degrees. That being the case, if the Premier would like to adopt that particular Greens policy, my suggestion would be: do not invest one more public dollar into a fossil fuel-driven asset. If we are to get to zero emissions in 36 years there is very little time to repay the economic value of any investments made today, and for that matter we should be setting a clear regulatory path and in fact a framework to get to zero. By 2050 I will be dead and the Premier will be in a nursing home, but the decisions that he makes in the next two years are so important in determining the future of our planet and particularly the Victorian environment.
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