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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-02-11 Daily Xml
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Nuclear Industry

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:45): A supplementary: given that the minister has now twice refused to support the Premier's statement, is he prepared to take advice from his department, the Department for Environment, to see whether the department has information which supports the Premier's statement that 'the threat of climate change is a greater risk than the threats associated with the deepening involvement in the nuclear industry'?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:45): The Hon. Mr Lucas does not seem to understand royal commissions and how they work. Royal commissions are designed to get to the root of issues, to canvass all available material, to look at all sides of a question and to put it out for public view, discussion and debate.

The Hon. Mr Lucas wants us to do something completely different to predetermine an outcome; that is the Liberal Party approach. We know concern about the environment and climate change is not in the Liberal Party DNA. Around the country they have been waging war on the environment as Liberal governments state and federal.

They erase the science portfolio from existence; they slash funding to science and research, including the CSIRO; they scrap the Climate Commission; they scrap the National Water Commission; they are rephasing water buybacks, and that is code for pushing back putting environmental water back into the Murray; they campaign on the repeal on the price of carbon; they attempt to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation; they commenced an inquiry into the renewable energy target scheme headed by a self-confessed climate sceptic—

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: What has this got to do with the question?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: It has everything to do with what you believe in. They attempted to list Tasmania's world heritage forests. They cut $486 million from the Caring for Country programs. They allow unscientific and indiscriminate killing and culling of sharks, despite scientific evidence to the contrary about its efficacy. They oversee the dumping on the Great Barrier Reef.

That is their approach to climate change, that is their approach to the environment, and it is little wonder that we are seeing the Liberal Party policy prescription for this country repudiated around the country at election after election. After all, this man, the Hon. Mr Lucas, was the marginal seat campaign coordinator for the last state election. How well he did there! I think he might have been the marginal seat campaign coordinator for the Fisher by-election. I am not sure that they gave him a third run in the Davenport by-election where the Leader of the Opposition achieved the unremarkable swing to the government in a by-election.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: A point of order, Mr President. The minister is waffling on. I draw your attention to relevance to the question.

The PRESIDENT: Minister, keep your answer to the question.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: I admire the point of order from the Hon. Mr Brokenshire trying to bring me to the relevance of the question. I can see no relevance to the Hon. Mr Lucas's question at all.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary?

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