Shadow climate change minister reiterates opposition to Adani mine, saying no ‘case for opening up new thermal coal mine’

The shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, has issued a stark warning before the coming election campaign, declaring the Australian parliament must end the stalemate and back Labor’s climate policy in the event of a Bill Shorten victory, or politicians will betray the next generation.

In an interview with Guardian Australia’s political podcast, Butler says Labor’s commitment to reduce emissions by 45% on 2005 levels by 2030 is a “rock solid commitment”, not an “aspiration” or “something that would be nice to achieve” – and he says voters are more agitated now about climate action than he has ever seen during his time as an MP .

Butler says the Morrison government is lining up to deploy “tired old scare campaigns” about carbon taxes in the coming campaign – with Scott Morrison this week characterising the measures this week as a “Borat tax” – “but what I see as I get around the country after a very angry summer … the hottest summer we have ever had … is Australians are sick of it”.

Very nice? Why the Australian PM did a Borat impression in parliament Read more

He argues voters are in a mood to punish the Coalition if the government defaults to wrecking and hyperbole over the coming weeks. “The consciousness, the level of expectation for this building, for the Australian parliament to do better on climate change is greater than I’ve ever seen – I think it’s greater than it was in 2007.

“People are increasingly seeing the impacts of climate change, they are seeing the urgent clear advice from scientists that this is a climate emergency.

“We have to stop having these petty political fights. We need to stop responding to Tony Abbott’s playbook and actually start putting some serious policy in place.”

Butler indicated Labor would pursue as much of the policy, outlined this week, as it could without triggering “a drawn out legislative battle” – meaning by regulation, and by working within existing mechanisms – and he predicts the Greens will be punished by their supporters if they refuse to support Labor’s climate policy on the basis of insufficient ambition.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shadow climate change minister Mark Butler has repeated his personal opposition to the Adani coalmine in Queensland. Photograph: Glenn Hunt/AAP

The Greens outlined its own climate policy before Labor to define some of the boundaries of policy ambition post-election, and have already signalled they could torpedo one element of Labor’s climate plan – allowing heavy polluters to use international permits to meet their emissions reduction targets.

Butler says that is a backflip on the position the Greens took during the implementation of the carbon price in the 43rd parliament. “They supported [the use of permits] when we were last in government, it was a central feature of the clean energy package they signed up to … but now, apparently, that’s an abomination.

“I think there is a lot of politics going on.”

He said if the Liberals lost the coming federal election, and Abbott lost his seat, that could create the conditions for the Liberal party to come back to the table on climate change, and he predicted if the Greens shot down the policy on the basis it wasn’t perfect, “that would be an extraordinary decision, frankly, for the Greens to take”.

Greens set 2030 cut-off for coal exports and coal-fired power stations Read more

Butler said the Greens voting with Abbott against Labor’s first climate policy mechanism during the last period in government was one of the factors in shattering the political consensus at the federal level which has prevented policy action for the best part of a decade.

The shadow climate change minister says Australia has now lost five years, with emissions rising when they should have been falling. “If Labor is elected at the next election, I think the gravity of responsibility of the next parliament to do something here should not be under-estimated.

“If the next Labor government is not allowed to make serious changes in this area, I hate to think where Australia is going to be in 2030.

“I hate to think of the scale of betrayal to our children and grandchildren if, for politics, our government, if we are elected at the next election, is prevented from implementing this policy.”

Labor’s policy involves boosting the existing safeguards mechanism to impose more stringent pollution reduction standards on heavy emitters, and imposing a new pollution regulation on car retailers “in line with” 105g CO2/km for light vehicles, which will drive the uptake of electric vehicles.

Adani accused of 'deceptive conduct' in campaign criticising state government Read more

The specific timeframes for implementation are not clear in the policy document released this week, and Labor has refused to release a carbon budget making transparent the specific levels of emissions reduction it is factoring in in each sector of the economy.

Butler acknowledges that Labor will face lobbying from politically influential stakeholders on its climate commitments if it wins the coming election, but he insists the changes will be implemented, pushback or no pushback.

He says a key difference between now and when Labor was last in government is a substantial shift from investors, regulators and lenders to a world where carbon emissions are now considered “a key investment risk”.

“Emissions reduction is now no longer an option. Emissions reduction is now a must do for emissions intensive businesses.”

Butler says he would like to remain in the climate portfolio in the event of an election win, but adds whether he does is a matter for Shorten – and he repeated his personal opposition to the controversial Queensland Adani coal mine. “I don’t think there’s a case for opening up a new thermal coal mine.”