Part 1

Senator RYAN (Victoria) (1:51 PM) —Here we are again debating the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 [No. 2] and related bills three months and a few days after the Senate first rejected the legislation. I think this timing belies the true agenda of this government. While our debate today is about the carbon pollution reduction scheme bills—all 13 of them—it is important to outline what this debate is not about: it is not about climate change and it is not about the human impact on it, whether in absolute terms or by degree. This parliament can no more unilaterally change the climate than it can make it rain, for Australia represents such a small percentage of the world’s carbon and other emissions that it is nothing more than extreme hubris to think that we alone can determine this issue.

This is a debate about these bills and Labor’s ETS, not a debate about the science of climate change, and it is important that we begin from this principle as the government seeks to conflate these two issues, not for the purposes of informing debate but to limit it, and for brazenly partisan goals. These bills were rejected by all the non-government senators in this place just over three months ago—they are truly friendless—and nothing has changed. These bills still have all the flaws they did three months ago. The government has artificially created the timeline we face here today, firstly, by insisting that the vanity of our Prime Minister comes before our national interest as he sought legislative approval for his flawed ETS before Copenhagen and, secondly, in its efforts to intimidate the Senate with the threat of an early election. The first excuse has been destroyed by the failure of Copenhagen. Despite all the rhetoric and desperate attempts to claim otherwise, the lack of a legally binding document for consideration by countries and governments and the fallback to nothing more than a statement of intention belies the fact that there was not previously—and there is now—no need for Australia to act unilaterally before the rest of the world. The second excuse is so immature that it is not worthy of a response in this place.

The Senate has a duty to protect the people from governments intoxicated with their own power and righteousness and, just as it has stood in the way of previous dominating executives convinced of their own brilliance, it will continue to exercise this power of review. Indeed, this is all the more important as we know the Labor Party exercises its power as a monolithic block. Just as it constrains internal debate by factions and deals, it seeks to constrain debate in this place with false timelines.

What has also happened is that the rhetoric of the climate change alarmists has become more extreme—I hasten to add that it is indeed a minority who fall into this camp—and there are many Australians who have legitimate concerns about this issue. But this debate is increasingly dominated by a noisy and belligerent minority at the expense of a rational debate about the problem and the consequences and our ability to address these. Listening to these extremists every week, every month, the consequences of not passing these bills becomes greater—centimetres of forecast sea level increases become metres and fractions of degrees become calamitous increases in temperature. But what they do not say is that these bills will achieve nothing. None of these alleged scenarios will be avoided by the passage of these bills this week. It also betrays another aspect of the agenda of those who might be termed ‘climate change extremists’: to create a crisis, to scare people and to frighten them into silence.

Last week the Prime Minister raised the spectre of that great historic example of scientific intimidation—the suppression and trial of Galileo—when he said in the other place, ‘It is as if we are back at the trial of Galileo.’ But the reality is that Galileo was persecuted for challenging conventional wisdom and the powers that be. He challenged prevailing wisdom. The Prime Minister, the minister and the alarmists among us have more in common with Pope Urban VIII and the suppression of alleged heretical views than they do with scientists challenging the status quo, as they seek to belittle, sideline and attack anyone who raises an alternative view or question. The label ‘sceptic’ is the modern expression of the Middle Ages accusation of being a heretic. Your views will not be considered, regardless of their merit. But this pales into insignificance when considering the language used by a small number of extremists in this debate. For some proponents of radical action on emissions to use the term ‘denier’ and subtly or otherwise attempt to conflate the Holocaust with this debate is offensive in the extreme. It belittles the greatest abuse of alleged science in the history of mankind as well as the millions of Holocaust victims. It simply has no place in this debate or any other of this sort.

I remain open to changing science. In an area where technology and knowledge is developing as quickly as this, it cannot be deemed by a government or any institution as settled—other than to suppress its further development. I do not claim to make a definitive statement on climate science, but I know that any attempt to suppress debate can only constrain its future development. Indeed the Australian people do not react well to being told what they may or may not think or discuss or to any attempt to limit or circumscribe debate about an issue like this, and it will do its proponents no favours. The great gift of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment was that knowledge became contestable. It is a hallmark of human progress and we should not resile from this principle in this or other debates.

I highlighted earlier that these bills still contain all the flaws that they did just over three months ago. These bills represent a massive tax grab—tens of billions of dollars will be stripped out of the hands of Australians with no offsetting tax cuts elsewhere. The size of government will radically grow. This bill and these taxes will ensure that the government has indeed created for itself a new tax base to fund its profligacy and the debt it has accumulated in only two short years. But it will come at the expense of millions of Australians choosing to spend the money they have earnt in the way that they choose; it will come at the expense of economic activity; it will come at the expense of jobs; and it will be handed to whomever the government deems worthy of support, assistance or compensation.

This is partly justified on the hope of these so-called ‘green jobs’. I outlined in my last speech on these bills just over three months ago some of the research that has been undertaken on the true cost of these so-called green jobs. While the government can create jobs through subsidies, mandates and direct employment, these all come at a cost of the jobs of others. They have come at the expense of other jobs unless they add to overall employment. But we do not hear of these costs or of these job losses because they are hidden from public view. Imposing indirect costs on all to benefit a few is a path we abandoned years ago. We know that it failed; we know that hiding the costs of such programs is unfair; and we know that it hits the weakest in our job market and in our community. The mere adoption of the language of the market does not make something a market solution. We have spent decades unwinding the influence of government over such basic decisions in our economy and our community, and Australia and Australians are unquestionably better-off for it. But these bills represent a massive reversal of that. These bills will fulfil the aspirations of the Prime Minister and place government at the centre of the economy, as he put it earlier this year. These bills open up the opportunity for government patronage and preference to a degree this country has not seen since the days of the Tariff Board. If decisions about commercial viability of projects and businesses are to come down to the government providing assistance or exemptions from general laws then, quite simply, we have got the framework wrong.

Sadly, it appears that decades of misadventure and miserable failure in this regard, particularly by the Labor Party, have not taught this government any lessons. Furthermore, these bills, once passed, will have great impediments on their future amendment or repeal, for the bills create a personal property right and, as we know in this place, section 51(xxxi) of the Constitution limits the power of the parliament to the acquisition of property on just terms. The institution of a scheme such as this without detailed consideration of this particular issue is, quite simply, irresponsible. We should give much more serious consideration to the prospect of binding future generations to such a degree. Our knowledge is not perfect; this scheme does not—

Debate interrupted.

Part 2

Page 8643 — Monday, 23 November 2009

Senator RYAN (Victoria) (9:37 PM) —Earlier today I concluded the first part of my speech on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 [No. 2] and related bills by outlining my concerns with these bills creating a personal property right and the implications that would have to future amendment or repeal of the bills because of the constitutionally entrenched protection of private property. We should give much more serious consideration to the prospect of binding future generations to such a degree. Our knowledge is not perfect. This scheme does not promise to address the problem it claims to, and future generations should not be weighed down with the threat of potentially billions of dollars of compensation claims if they need to amend or repeal this scheme.

This scheme represents the single most significant change to our economy in decades. It is a hidden, embedded tax that all Australians will pay but about which none will know the details or the true costs. Indeed, as Terry McCrann has pointed out, it is like a variable GST. It effectively reverses the tariff cuts we have seen in the last three decades but, perversely, it replaces them with a tariff on internal production, for which the government then seeks to pass on compensation to preferred companies and industries affected and to select individuals.

Indeed, it has specific effects in my own state. There are very serious concerns about the stability and future of electricity generation in Victoria. And, with our national electricity market, this will affect most Australians. Respected business commentator, Robert Gottliebsen, comprehensively outlined this when he stated only a week ago:

Within a week of the current proposed legislation being passed, the boards of each of the companies that own the Latrobe generators will meet with their auditors on whether the companies’ debt covenants have been broken. Almost certainly a majority, if not all the boards, will decide to appoint official administrators.

There is a real risk that that is what this legislation in its current form will do, with the associated risk to the security of our energy supplies. This parliament should not be contemplating such a result. The government will not even entrust the people or this parliament with all of the information regarding this. We are asked to take their commitments at face value. I mentioned earlier this afternoon the continued refusal to release the details of the Morgan Stanley report. If this legislation passes and electricity generation becomes unreliable, rather than something Australians—and particularly Victorians—can take for granted, it will rest on this government’s head.

One final issue I would like to raise is that of procedural fairness. This has been covered by a number of my colleagues but it is worth restating. These bills contain extraordinary powers for the government, in the guise of the Australian Climate Change Regulatory Authority. It can require companies to keep and produce voluminous records and it can demand information and force questions to be answered—all without the traditional protections against self-incrimination and the right to silence. These are historical freedoms and liberties that this parliament should be loath to whittle away—and most definitely not without a much more substantial level of public security and debate about these specific issues.

I state again: this is not a debate about climate change; it is a debate about Labor’s proposed flawed ETS. The climate is undoubtedly changing, but this is a highly complex issue and the science will constantly evolve. I am not standing here saying that it is not happening, nor that people are not contributing to it, but that I do believe that firm conclusions about the degree of change or our contribution cannot be settled here today or this week.

I am in favour of risk management, both on economic and environmental grounds. Acting to ensure we limit and ameliorate the risk of climate change—anthropogenic and otherwise—and reduce the amount of pollution in our sky and local environment is common sense. I am in favour of good policy to achieve these goals, but these bills will not achieve that. Any such action has to be affordable in order for it to be sustainable, and it has to be a burden fairly shared. I do not believe we should act unilaterally and in a way that hurts our economy. It is important to note that we do not have all of the information required to make these assessments. The Treasury modelling is flawed in its assumptions about international measures and other information has been concealed.

While ‘the economy’ is an abstract term to some, it represents the jobs, businesses, livelihoods and homes of our fellow Australians. And some are hit a lot harder than others—the dairy farmers across Victoria who will pay substantially higher costs despite the government’s claim that some agriculture will be exempt; the workers in the Latrobe Valley; those who work in energy-intensive industries, particularly those who are export exposed; and the thousands of small- and medium-size businesses and their employees who will see costs skyrocket. None of these qualify for taxpayer funded largesse and patronage. This package simply fails the fairness test.

When I buy an insurance policy for my home, I ask myself two questions. Firstly, I ask: does the policy protect me? Secondly, I ask: how much does it cost? This ETS fails on both counts. Firstly, it does not protect us. These bills will achieve virtually nothing in environmental terms. Indeed, the way these bills and the ETS are structured, they could well worsen the problem they aspire to address, by exporting emissions to other nations without our already high environmental standards and safeguards—along with the jobs of fellow Australians. The forecast events that the government claims justify this massive intrusion into every business and home will still occur. Secondly, it costs too much. Put simply, I pay hundreds to insure my home, but not tens of thousands of dollars. But thousands of Australians will lose their jobs on the altar of Australia acting first and millions of Australians will face higher costs and bills—and all for nought, as this legislation does not address the problem it claims to address and has no effect on the other 98 per cent of emissions around the world.

I have not been here long but, while all the decisions we take in this place are important, these bills are likely to be among the most significant in my time in this place—bigger than the GST, which was a once-off transition and transparent in its costs to the Australian people. These bills should not be rushed. They should not be determined on the basis of a deadline set by a government that has constantly shown that politics is more important than policy. We have the time to consider our position further. We have the time to better inform the Australian people of the real costs involved—as opposed to concealing them. We have the time to ensure the burden is fairly shared. The false deadline of Copenhagen has now been blown. We do not need to act now, in the rush of the last sitting hours of this year.