NORTHERN AUSTRALIA CELEBRATES THE COMING OF REALISM IN THE EMISSIONS DEBATE

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The productive industries of Northern Australia will be today celebrating the sense of realism which has emerged on the world following the failure of the Copenhagen climate change talks.

The Federal Opposition Spokesman on Northern and Remote Australia, Senator Ian Macdonald said that whilst northerners, like every other Australian, want to reduce greenhouse emissions, they understood the futility of Australia destroying its economy by going it alone.

“Had Australia proceeded with its ill conceived Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), not one benefit would have been obtained for the environment but the cost to Northern Australians in particular would have been enormous.

“The north of Australia produces a great deal of the mineral wealth of the country and employs tens of thousands of people in the mining, extraction and metals processing industries. These industries would have been hard hit by Mr Rudds poorly conceived CPRS.

“The hysteria about the impact of Australia’s emissions on the Great Barrier Reef has been shown to be false.

“Without world action, which was clearly not forthcoming from Copenhagen, nothing Australia does will have any impact whatsoever on the Barrier Reef or the frequency of bushfires and cyclones as was threatened by the fear mongers in the Rudd Government.

“The main challenge facing the Barrier Reef at the moment is water quality and most northerners are part of sensible proposals to address that issue.

“Rather than Australia dishing out huge sums of money to corrupt regimes else where in the world, Mr Rudd should be directing any funding allocated to climate change to assisting Australians in the Torres Strait who may be impacted by the continual changing of the climate in the world.

The federal opposition continues to work on a series of practical moves to reduce Carbon Emissions, moves which will not destroy the Australian economy and not put the jobs of many northerners at risk.

END

21 December 2009

Media contact Gordon Terry (07) 4771 3066 or 0427 960 255                                           

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