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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-15 Daily Xml
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CLIMATE CHANGE

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:05): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation a question about climate change.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: Last week, the Premier sent an email to South Australians who subscribe to updates on the South Australian Strategic Plan. The topic of that email was climate change. The email sets out the findings of the International Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report and goes on to outline what the government has been doing in this area. I note that much of that communication was repeated today as a ministerial statement entitled Major State Climate Change Review.

Whilst that ministerial statement and the direct communication from the Premier seems to reflect the Premier's view, earlier this month his colleague the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy was spruiking the boom in exploration for fossil fuels in South Australia, including oil, gas and coal. Minister Koutsantonis was also singing the praises of new export proposals for South Australian fossil fuels, including new pipelines. Of course, this is on top of the Road Map for Unconventional Gas Projects that was released last year that promotes fracking for coal seam gas and shale gas in many parts of South Australia, including farmland. My questions of the minister are:

1. Will the strategic climate change review include an assessment of emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels interstate and overseas that originate in South Australia?

2. If such emissions are taken into account, does the minister accept that our carbon footprint would be far, far greater than previously disclosed?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:07): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions, and I refer him to my ministerial statement where I said at the bottom that I will not be pre-empting the outcome of the Premier's Climate Change Council report. I have tasked them to bring us up to date to give the government advice. It is not my role to direct them to each particular issue that they should consider. That will be something that they will consider as an organisation.

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