Renewable Energy Target

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:11): My question is to the Premier. Has the government done any modelling to ascertain the cost to consumers and the South Australian economy of achieving the Premier's 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2025?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:11): Here's the cost of living on a dying planet: no industry, no capacity to actually offer a future for yourselves and your families—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned for the second and the final time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That is the cost of living on a dying planet that's burning up because of climate change. I know they are a bunch of climate change sceptics on that side of the house, but this is the fundamental question at the heart of this government's policy—and not just this government's policy but the policy of this nation, and not only the policy of this nation but the policy of the world community. Those opposite who want to turn their back on this international consensus of the need to actually tackle climate change are basically putting themselves in the past and they are selling out future generations.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Those opposite do not understand that the costs of adjustment fall more heavily—those who do not act first are simply burying their heads in the sand. It was this state government—

The SPEAKER: Point of order, the member for Morialta.

Mr GARDNER: Standing order 98: debate. The question was: has the Premier received any modelling?

The SPEAKER: Has the Premier received any modelling?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I certainly have, sir. The point is this: this government commissioned, and took a leadership role in commissioning, Ross Garnaut to act on behalf of all states and territories in relation to the creation of a carbon pollution reduction scheme. The reason that work was undertaken was to provide the most efficient, the lowest cost and the most efficacious way of dealing with climate change. There is an international consensus that the most effective way, including what emerged from Paris last year in December, of dealing with climate change was to put a price on carbon. That was the lowest cost.

What is amazing is that those opposite, who would otherwise be committed to the market, committed to actually pricing an externality and straight up and down neoclassical economics, turn their back on this because somehow it offends their sensibilities to be talking about our natural environment and protecting it in this way. Because they are so addicted to the coal industry, because they are so bought and sold by coal interests, they cannot rise above it and actually even consult their own ideology in what is the cheapest and most effective way of restructuring this economy, and indeed every economy of the nation, to deal with this.

Just consider this fact for one moment. Our nation is the highest per capita polluter of carbon emissions in the world and the single biggest contributor to carbon pollution is our energy system, which is amongst the dirtiest in the world. When sensible measures are promoted, straight up and down, neoclassical economic propositions about pricing and externality to get the most efficient allocation of resources, to get the best change at the lowest cost, we get these culture wars being engaged in by Tony Abbott and all those climate deniers that have the Liberal Party in their thrall.

And there is one thing that sits at the heart of this debate in this place, and that is that, when there is a choice between the state's interests and the Liberal Party's interests, the Leader of the Opposition every time sacrifices this state's interest to his own political party.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Before we get to the member for Adelaide, if a minister debates an answer and the opposition listens in silence and then takes a point of order, I will uphold it. If, however, the opposition merely interjects at the top their voice and stops only to take a point of order, I will not look at it very kindly. The member for Adelaide.