Page 272 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 7 March 2007
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Mrs Dunne: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is not question time and Mr Mulcahy cannot answer those questions—
MR SPEAKER: Order!! They are rhetorical questions, I am sure.
DR FOSKEY: Does Mr Mulcahy know that the Stern report—
Mr Mulcahy: Did you not read my media statement on the Stern report?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Order, members, please. Can we quieten it down a bit? Dr Foskey has the floor.
DR FOSKEY: I just wish that everyone in the Canberra community was watching the level at which this debate is being conducted. Has he heard of the Allen Consulting Group? Did he read their report to the Business Roundtable on Climate Change? The fact is that these people are not coming from outside the discipline. I am well aware that most economists are not able to take on issues that are raised outside the discipline—and not only outside the discipline, but outside the very narrow, neo-liberal economics which is currently taught within our institutions. The fact is that these economists—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Members, there are too many conversations going on in the room. Dr Foskey has the floor.
DR FOSKEY: These economists are all saying that, if we are going to avoid economic collapse as well as ecological collapse, we have to act now. We will have a great deal of regret if we do not. I think I heard Mr Mulcahy belittling the New Zealand government because it has adopted a zero-emissions target. Does he think that New Zealand is interested in sacrificing its economic growth because it cares about the rest of the world? New Zealand sits in the Pacific; it has a lot more contact with our Pacific neighbours—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! We have got a conversation going on my right and interjections on my left. Order, please!
DR FOSKEY: New Zealand is much more aware that it will be the recipient of many more environmental refugees. In countries like Tuvalu and Kiribati we are already seeing the impacts of rising seas. These are real impacts; this is not just me imagining and talking.
We can all install fluorescent long-life light bulbs—I believe the federal government is going to spend quite a bit of money persuading us to do that—but these fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury. Things have to be thought through. We might have a mercury problem. Is that better? Is nuclear power better? We will have a radioactive
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