Climate Change statement from Bill Shorten

Media Release

Date:  17 July 2014

Today Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made Australia the first country to reverse action on climate change.

The Abbott Government is determined to hurt Australians now with its unfair Budget and is determined to hurt future generations by refusing to tackle climate change.

History will judge Tony Abbott harshly for refusing to believe that action is needed on climate change.

Tony Abbott will do anything to try and ignore the science of climate change. It’s clear that he still thinks it is – in his own words – “absolute crap”.

Australia could have gone to the Paris Conference next year with an integrated, effective Emissions Trading Scheme, but Tony Abbott has embarrassed Australians and instead we attend that Conference as the only country to reverse its climate action.

Tony Abbott is taking Australia backwards while the rest of the world is moving forward.

All of Australia’s major trading partners are taking serious action on climate change, including in our own region.

Labor fought for an emissions trading scheme, which sets a legal cap on carbon pollution and lets business work out the most efficient way to operate within that cap.

It’s the same policy in place in some of our oldest trading partners like the UK, Germany and France and importantly, it’s countries in our region such as China and South Korea either have an ETS in place or are moving towards one.

With the clean energy package now on Tony Abbott’s growing scrap pile of good policies, renewable energy is now in his sights.

Tony Abbott is attempting to abolish the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Clean Energy Finance Corporation and undermine investment in renewable energy by spreading myths about the impact of renewable energy on the cost of electricity.

Unlike the Abbott Government, Labor believes climate change is real and we must take action.