Coal industry is safe, says Greg Combet Samantha Maiden From: The Australian September 13, 2010 12:00AM THE nation's new Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, has vowed to bring "common sense" to the climate change debate.
And he has warned that he will fight for coal industry jobs as he pursues a price on carbon.
The former union leader has predicted the coal industry "absolutely" has a future as he pursues his three key policy reform objectives: pursuing renewable energy; energy efficiency; and the development of a carbon price for Australia.
Insisting the Climate Change portfolio was an economic reform challenge, he said: "You don't take the back of the axe to the fundamentals of the Australian economy."
Julia Gillard yesterday moved to stamp her authority on her new government after elevating her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, to the senior portfolio of Foreign Affairs and shifting Stephen Smith to Defence. With 42 ministers and parliamentary secretaries, the front bench and junior ministry now outnumber Labor's own back bench. Among the biggest winners were senator Penny Wong, who was shifted from Climate Change to the important Finance portfolio, and Peter Garrett, who takes up the Schools portfolio, despite the insulation scheme debacle happening on his watch as environment minister.
Mr Combet's new role puts him in cabinet for the first time.
As part of its deal to secure government, Labor signed a formal alliance with the Greens, whose policies include the eventual phasing out of the coal industry, Australia's biggest export earner.
But in an interview with The Australian, Mr Combet said his background as a former coal engineer, union official and MP with coal workers in his NSW electorate meant he did not believe his job was to shut down the coal industry.
"I don't agree with that. That's not part of my job at all," he said.
"I am acutely aware of the challenges that this policy presents. But people jump to these absolute positions, and I just don't think that's appropriate.
"I've got a responsibility to support those people's jobs. The coal industry is a very vibrant industry with a strong future. What you've got to do is look to how we can achieve in the longer term things like carbon capture and storage for coal-fired power stations."
Greens leader Bob Brown has described Australia as being like a heroin addict "feeding the habit" of the world's reliance on coal. The party's stated policy is to oppose development of any new coalmines or the expansion of existing coalmines and to phase out all existing coal subsidies. It wants to work towards stopping the development and granting of export licences for all new coalmines.
But in a statement last night, Greens senator Christine Milne, who has the party's portfolio responsibility for climate change, said she did not intend to rehash the policy differences with Labor as she sought to build "trust" with the new Gillard government. "I have put in a call to Greg Combet to congratulate him and begin the exciting conversation," she said.
"In the meantime, I hope we can all respect the delicate process of building trust between people coming from different policy positions so we can achieve the best outcomes possible for the climate."
Mr Combet said his job as minister was to build a stronger, deeper consensus on climate change issues, including election campaign policies to develop efficiency standards.
During the election campaign, the Prime Minister vowed to ban new coal-fired power stations that use "dirty" technology and require that any power station built can be retro-fitted with developing clean-coal technology.
"We will never allow a highly inefficient and dirty power station to be built again in Australia," she said. "If we are re-elected, Labor will ensure that all new power stations have to meet world's best practice."
But yesterday, Mr Combet said he was not in the business of applying the adjective "dirty" to coal.
"People will use whatever language they want. But you won't hear me using it," he said. "You do not take the back of the axe to the fundamentals of the Australian economy. We just work through it very carefully with reforms such as energy efficiency improvements, where you can reduce emissions quite significantly. With investment in renewable energy sources, which will help us reduce emissions significantly and work towards introducing a carbon price. The key thing about a carbon price, from my point of view, from the outset is that it created an incentive to reduce emissions . . . but do it sensibly. And we did do it with the CPRS (carbon pollution reduction scheme), with all the negotiations we had with industry. We've got to keep it on it a commonsense frame."
Mr Combet said he believed he knew the industry "very well" but conceded he had a lot to learn, particularly about international negotiations.
He declined to criticise Senator Wong or Mr Rudd's failure to deliver on an emissions trading scheme in the previous term, describing it as a complex area.
"I am certainly not going to criticise any of my colleagues. I mean, I've been involved in the portfolio over the past 18 months. People can criticise me too if they wish," he said. "There's no doubt that Kevin Rudd was fundamentally committed to dealing with climate change. The new PM is fundamentally committed. We were so close to getting it through."
Among other ministerial changes announced at the weekend, Human Services Minister Chris Bowen, who was also already in cabinet, will tackle the Immigration portfolio.
Queensland's Craig Emerson has also been elevated to cabinet in the Trade portfolio, while Simon Crean, who previously held the portfolio after briefly taking responsibility for Education and Workplace Relations following the leadership change, will tackle Regional Australia. He will be charged with prosecuting the new deal that secured the support of the independents Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie to help Labor form a minority government. But Ms Gillard's elevation of Mr Rudd came with a warning yesterday that she was still the boss, despite the renowned foreign affairs prowess of the former prime minister.
"Obviously it will be run by the government as a team, we will work as a team," she told the ABC's Insiders program when asked about foreign policy. "There will be involvement by the cabinet. Ultimately of course, I'm the leader."
Mr Smith, who is vacating the Foreign Affairs portfolio and shifting to Defence to make way for Mr Rudd, also issued a diplomatic warning to the former prime minister that there should not be a "crack of light" between the party leader and the foreign minister on policy matters.
Ms Gillard said Mr Rudd had a lot of expertise in foreign policy, and "obviously, as a former leader too, he is entitled to respect". "Kevin and I will be working together, playing those complementary roles," she said.
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