Climate Council

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation about the Climate Council report. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recently released report from the Climate Council entitled 'The Australian renewable energy race', that compares how each Australian state is performing in the renewable energy sector?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:50): I thank the honourable member for his incredible question. It is hot off the presses; I had no idea he could get to it so quickly—

The Hon. G.E. Gago interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: He does keep up—

The Hon. G.E. Gago interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Indeed he is. The Climate Council released a new report today comparing Australian states and territories' performance in the renewable energy sector. The report, 'The Australian renewable energy race: which states are winning or losing?', talks about the importance of individual states and territories playing an important leadership role in tackling climate change. I am very pleased to say that South Australia continues to lead the nation in taking action on climate change and in fostering new and profitable industries in our state. As the report notes, 'Due to the policy environment, South Australia is the most desirable market in Australia for investment.'

South Australia leads the nation in large-scale renewable energy capacity per person installed since 2001, and the report goes on to say that 'a little over a decade ago South Australia had very little in renewable energy capacity to speak of, but it is now a leader in renewables after a decade of increasing targets for renewables and supporting policies'. This shows that leadership plays a very big role in creating the right environment for this important sector to grow.

The report highlights initiatives such as our recent legislation that provides renewable energy developers access to crown land subject to pastoral releases, and supporting a concept model for community-owned solar. These initiatives are in addition to the targets that this government has set for renewable energy; we have a target to achieve $10 billion of low carbon investment by 2025 and we recently set ourselves a new target of achieving 50 per cent of total electricity generated from renewable energy sources by 2025. As highlighted in the report, we are the only Australian state with a current target to increase renewable energy.

I have often spoken about the important environmental and economic contribution that the renewable energy sector is making in this state. It seems like everyone is talking about the importance of the renewable energy sector and the need to act decisively to tackle climate change these days—everyone, it seems, except Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the federal Liberal government.

The world's attention turned to Australia in recent days, on 15 and 16 of this month, for the G20 Leaders' Summit. For a country like Australia, this was a unique chance to show a commitment to working with other world leaders to address the complex and difficult issues we all face. Everything that is agreed upon and/or discussed—or perhaps, more appropriately, not discussed, in this case—at such summits has a direct impact on South Australians and our state's economy.

We should therefore be extremely concerned about the way Australia has been portrayed following this G20 summit. Our Prime Minister used the opening speech, I am told, to stand in front of an international audience, that included politicians, journalists and viewers from around the world, to complain about domestic matters. The LA Times went so far as to call this an embarrassing 'awkward, pimply youth moment' in article published on 16 November.

That was not the worst of it, Mr President. The Abbott government's short-sighted parochialism was most evident in its attempt to keep climate change off the agenda during the summit. This was despite the fact that just a few days earlier, on 12 November, the United States and China announced an historic climate agreement that would see the United States roughly double its pollution reduction targets for the next five years and for China to reach its CO₂ emissions peak by 2030 and then to decline.

The US President placed climate change well and truly on the agenda during the Brisbane summit. In his speech at the University of Queensland, the US President's message to Australia was clear: 'If China and the US can agree on this, the world can agree on this. We need to get this done.' He also added that 'no nation is immune and every nation has a responsibility to do its part'. President Obama also used the speech to announce a $3 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund, which aims to help developing nations deal with climate change.

Again, the Abbott government was silent on the issue and on whether Australia would also contribute. On Monday 17 November News.com—that radical rag, or whatever you call a modern media site these days—published a scathing article about the impact of the Abbott government's renewable energy policies on the sector. It stated:

the renewable energy industry is by any measure one of the world's fastest growing industries. Other countries understand this—

everyone, that is, except the Abbott government—

For example, China this year for the first time installed more renewable energy capacity than fossil fuels.

The article goes on to report that, according to the Climate Council:

…Annual large-scale renewable energy investment in Australia in 2014 is a fraction of 2013 levels and said to be the lowest in 12 years.

Thanks to the federal government's policies we are going backwards as a nation, and this will severely impact South Australia's jobs and economy. The LA Times summed it up well when they reported that our prime minister, in his opening speech for the G20 summit, boasted 'that his government repealed the country's carbon tax, standing out among Western nations as the one willing to reverse progress on global warming.'

It is a sad day indeed when Australia makes headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons. But the South Australian government is committed to taking action on climate change, committed to supporting jobs and investment in South Australia, and committed to working with industry to realise opportunities for our state. We call on the federal government and those opposite to work with us to ensure the health of our planet and our economy into the future.