MOTIONS › Climate Change: National Farmers' Federation
Senator DUNIAM (Tasmania—Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries and Assistant Minister for Regional Tourism) (16:14): I seek leave to make a short statement. The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator DUNIAM: The government notes that the NFF's target is an aspiration and not a binding target with strict caveats regarding fair implementation and economic viability. The policies the opposition took to the last election would have cost over 300,000 jobs, cut the average wage by $9,000 and delivered a $400 billion hit to the economy. The government will not adopt a target when it cannot tell the Australian people how much it will cost to achieve. Instead, the government's 'technology, not taxes' approach will reduce emissions without imposing new costs on households, businesses or the economy. We've beaten our Kyoto era targets by up to 430 million tons, around 80 per cent of a full year's emissions, and we are committed to doing the same with our 2030 target.