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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-06 Daily Xml
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Carbon Emissions Reduction

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Environment. Can the minister update the house on the Marshall Liberal government's commitment to reducing carbon emissions and creating a more resilient South Australia in the face of a changing climate?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Yes, yes. The member for Lee and I think it was the member for Kavel—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Right. This is your question time. The time is ticking.

Mr Brown: Apparently it's their question time.

The SPEAKER: This is your question time. The time is ticking. Quite frankly, I ask the temperature to dial down a bit. I am trying to give you as many questions as I can, and it's becoming more and more difficult. The time is still ticking. I would like to hear the question again, and if this behaviour, on my left especially, continues members will be leaving—and my right, quite frankly.

Mr COWDREY: My question again is for the Minister for Environment and Water. Can the minister update the house about the Marshall Liberal government's commitment to reducing carbon emissions and creating a more resilient South Australia in the face of a changing climate?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:43): I thank the member for Colton for that great question.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: There is no doubt that one of the central uplifting themes of the Governor's speech yesterday was our focus, this government's focus, on sustainability, on greening this state and of course securing the resilience of this state in the face of a changing climate. Central to that was our announcement that we want to put into place an interim target on greenhouse gas emissions.

We know that for several years South Australia has had an ambitious target to see net zero emissions by 2050. That was put in place in a bipartisan sense between both major sides of politics in this house, but we want to put in place an interim target to ensure that we have that stretch towards meaningful change when it comes to emissions reductions. The year 2050 is a long way away. We can't afford to sit back and rest on our laurels and hope that closer to that date technology will be in place that will see dramatic reductions in emissions.

Instead, we need to get that 2030 target in place. We announced through the Governor's speech yesterday that we now have a target in place to have a 50 per cent reduction on emissions on 2005 levels by 2030, a great stepping stone towards that net zero target in 2050 and an incredible opportunity for this state to not only lead the nation when it comes to climate action but lead the world, to take an international leadership role, which I believe we have had over many years in this state, and to turbocharge that and head on into the future.

The opportunities for this state are immense. I do not want to just put my hands up as Minister for Environment and say that this is all too hard. Instead, we need to look for opportunities that will create jobs, that will position this state and send a really significant market signal to draw private enterprise to this state. We have seen that already with the battery industry, we have seen it already with renewable energy and storage and we have seen it with our move towards a single-use plastic ban and other waste management initiatives. It is a powerful signal to the market that South Australia is the place to do business if we want to lead the world when it comes to emissions reductions. We can do that.

It was a great pleasure over the summer to be able to do the South Australian launch of Ross Garnaut's book, Superpower: Australia's Low-Carbon Opportunity, which puts forward the hypothesis that South Australia—or Australia as a nation, but I target it towards South Australia—really has that opportunity through our low-carbon community and our low-carbon business sector here to be able to provide products, to be able to provide services and to be able to provide the knowledge and understanding required to take that international leadership role.

Businesses from around the world, other jurisdictions, are looking for places in the world that are operating in that very low-carbon place. They want to buy our products, they want that stamp of approval when it comes to low carbon. The opportunity is tremendous and we are working towards this. We hope that this will have bipartisan support. I know that the environmental NGO sector is supportive. We want to work alongside the business community. We are putting our hand up and saying South Australia has a low-carbon future and we are pushing the boundaries when it comes to achieving that.

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