26 October 2007
Peter Garrett MP
Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts
Federal Labor today reaffirmed its pledge to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
This followed statements by outgoing Business Council of Australia head, Mr Michael Chaney who said he believed the Howard Government should have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
Mr Chaney made the comments in an interview with The Australian in an article entitled: “Rejection of Kyoto a mistake, says BCA” (page 5).
In the interview, Mr Chaney said in direct quotes: “I think with hindsight, it would have been a good idea (to ratify the Kyoto Protocol).”
This is an extraordinary statement. This morning, we have one of Australia’s senior business figures speaking out, saying the Howard Government should have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
For 11 long years, we have seen only denial, scepticism and delay from the Howard Government on climate change.
The Howard Government has shown it is completely out of touch on climate change.
Federal Labor has a strong and comprehensive plan to tackle dangerous climate change.
On February 1, Federal Labor Leader Mr Kevin Rudd said: “we would ratify it because Australia’s already signed it. We would ratify the Kyoto Protocol almost immediately, as soon as we could get the instruments ready. Why? We want to be part of the global solution on climate change, not part of the global problem.”
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