Climate Change and the Environment

“Safeguarding Australia’s natural environment is one of the key challenges of our time. For Labor, environmental protection has always been central to our vision for Australia.” – Bob Debus

Bob Debus has a long-standing commitment to environmental protection. As NSW Environment Minister for eight years, Bob expanded the State’s world-class national parks system, reformed pollution laws and established a new system of marine parks.

A Rudd Labor Government will:
1. Immediately ratify the Kyoto Protocol and work to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050
2. Set up a national greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme
3. Offer low-interest loans of up to $10,000 to help make homes greener and more energy and water efficient
4. Establish an Office of Climate Change within the Prime Minister’s department, and commission an Australian-focussed equivalent of the UK’s Stern Report on the impact of climate change on the Australian economy and jobs
5. Substantially increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target
6. Establish a $500 million National Clean Coal Fund
7. Fund the $50 million Solar Home Power Plan, allowing about 12,000 households to install solar panels
8. Establish a $500 million Green Car Innovation Fund to facilitate the manufacture of low-emission vehicles in Australia
9. Set a target to make half of all Commonwealth cars environmentally-friendly by 2020
10. Work locally and internationally to end Japanese whale slaughtering

No Nukes for Macquarie

On a recent visit to the Blue Mountains, Peter Garrett, Labor Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment & Heritage and Arts, outlined the stark environmental choice voters face: a clean, green future for Australia under Labor or John Howard’s nuclear nation.

“Mr Howard simply cannot be trusted on nuclear reactors and waste dumps,” said Peter Garrett. “Since 2003, Mr Howard has worked to impose nuclear waste dumps in South Australia and the Northern Territory and to speed up processes to build nuclear reactors, including over-riding state and local rights and bypassing environmental protections.

“Mr Howard’s latest position of supporting local votes on the sites of nuclear reactors exists only for political convenience. He does not plan to allow or fund these votes in the short-term, his new position is simply about neutralising nuclear reactors as an election issue.”

Peter Garrett said many Macquarie residents were extremely well educated about the dangers of nuclear reactors and waste dumps. This was reflected in the sustained campaign across the Blue Mountains against the transportation of nuclear waste.

“It is clear the Prime Minister has no intention of listening to communities when they voice their opposition to a nuclear future,” he said. “The only way to guarantee there will be no nuclear facilities or transportation of nuclear waste in Macquarie is to elect a Rudd Labor Government.”