Topics: 2035 emissions targets, Labor’s sneaky carbon taxes, PNG treaty.

 

E&OE

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Angus Taylor, the opposition's current defence spokesperson, is also a former Shadow Treasurer and a former Energy Minister, you may recall. He knows the numbers when it comes to this topic. He's been one of the strongest critics of Labor's climate agenda, arguing it's more about ideology than practicality. Isn't that true?  Angus Taylor is on the line right now. Angus, welcome to 2SM and the Super Radio Network.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Thanks for having me, good to be with you.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Yeah, I was watching yesterday, and I found it interesting that the three green stooges, Kean, Bowen and Albanese, he didn't laugh when they said things like, oh we'll also drop your power bills by 20%, we’re also going to add $2.2 trillion dollars to the economy by having these targets. I've never heard more hogwash in my life!

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Absolute utter nonsense, and of course their report tells us that. Look, the starting point here is emissions have barely moved since Labor came to power. They're still sitting around 28% down on the baseline, which is 2005 levels, and they've barely moved. Now, they moved down 10% when I was Minister and prices came down at the same time because we used gas and did other things that were sensible and weren't going to cost Australians anything.

 

But they haven't moved and they're not on track to get to their 43% reduction by 2030, and now they're adding in this massive target of up to 70% reduction just five years later; and it's completely unrealistic and unless they put a wrecking ball through the economy, and when you read the report, you see they are planning for a whole series of, what are effectively carbon taxes through the economy.

 

They model what they're planning to do as a carbon price on the economy, getting up to around 13 times Julia Gillard's carbon tax, and the truth is they'll do it in a whole lot of sneaky ways. They’ll have nice names for them: Vehicle Emission Standards, the Safeguard, but they're just big costs being applied to our manufacturing, to our transport, to our cars, to our electricity, to the agriculture sector, and they will do this bit by bit by bit over the next couple of years.

The other bit that they are seriously considering in this, and planning in this, is to impose tariffs on our imports as well and, carbon border adjustments – they call them – again, they use these euphemisms, but it's just a tax on imports…

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Yeah, it's a whole raft of carbon taxes!

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Correct, correct and we shouldn’t, you know, they're using all these wonderful words of ‘marginal abatement incentive’, ’Target-consistent carbon value’. It's just a carbon tax. It's nonsense, Chris.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Yeah, tell me…

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

And they know it's nonsense and the idea that they're going to bring electricity prices down, seriously, this is Chris Bowen who promised this $275 reduction and all we've seen is them going up. I mean, absolute utter nonsense.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Well, he's saying this morning that it's not a political promise, it’s actually an economic reality.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

That prices have come down?

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Yeah

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

I mean, you know, they're taking from taxpayers and giving back subsidies, and even with that the prices still haven't come down. So, I mean, this guy is not credible on electricity prices. He's not credible on emissions as well, and he's not credible in saying that there's not going to be an economic wrecking ball as a result of what they're planning and laying out here.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

And what do you make of the $8 billion that they're trumpeting, they're only spending to reach these targets? For a start, the Treasurer is suggesting that we will double our renewable allotment, mainly because the private sector will weigh in. Well, we know what the private sector is doing now in terms of offshore and onshore wind farms. They don't want a bar of it. So, if it's not the private sector, I guess it's the taxpayer?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well, you know, even if it is the private sector, you pay for it as a consumer. I mean if the private sector funds a massive rollout of transmission lines, you pay for it. It's your bills. It's your bills. Make no mistake about it. That's how it works. Look, who's going to pay for this? It's either taxpayers or consumers. It'll be some combination of both in the end, I suspect. We'll learn more over time. They haven't been upfront about how this is all going to roll up. There's all these reviews they've got going on, which will tell us more. But the one thing we know is that you are all going to pay for it as a consumer or as a taxpayer. The numbers are big. They've given us the numbers, as I said, up to 13 times Julia Gillard’s carbon tax that will roll through the economy. And it will be an economic wrecking ball for our economy and our standards of living and that's something we can't afford right now.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

See, in some ways, Angus, there was no point in having a 2035 target. Why? Could they have done that? Just said, no, we're not going to have a target for 2035.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well, Chris Bowen wants this big climate conference, the COP conference.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Yes.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

He wants this in Australia.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

He wants to be the climate evangelist of the globe for two weeks.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Yeah, that's right. I mean, we're 50,000 activists who'll turn up on our shore and tell us how terrible we are, and how our coal industry's got to go, and our gas industry's got to go, and we've got to do something about flatulence in sheep and cattle…

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

That's right.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

This is what we'll get there. Bowen wants to be loved by these people, so he needs to have a big target and that's what he wants to take to this conference which happens in a few weeks time, not far off in November. You know that's it's all about him and his ideology and the ideology of the Left, but the truth is what we should be focusing on is the economic plight of hardworking Australians  and I am deeply concerned about what this means for them.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Last question on this subject. If you were running the Liberal Party, would you ditch Net Zero? 

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well, what’s very clear is that this pathway that Labor's taking us on is completely unacceptable and we should oppose it; and I'm delighted that we agreed we would oppose these targets yesterday, straight away, that's good news. But we have to impose anything that's going to impose a big economic impost on our economy, it’s going to slow our economy, it's going to hurt our standard of living, that's always been my position.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

So, we shouldn't have a net zero target?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well, I've got no problem, look I've got no problem, Chris with people choosing to use clean energy technologies, household solar or electric vehicle, or hybrids actually, you know, bringing down emissions, because it's good for them. I've got no problem with that. If that's how we get to net zero, great. Knock yourself out. Buy household solar, your hybrid vehicle, or whatever it is. There's no problem with that. What I've got a problem with, and I've always had a problem with, is putting, effectively putting taxes in place to hurt our economy, our standard of living, the opportunities we have for not only us, but our kids and our grandkids. That's where I'll draw the line and I will every single day.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Alright, can you put your Shadow Defence spokesperson hat on for a second? What do you make of the fact that the Prime Minister returned from PNG with nothing much but a new wardrobe of flowery shirts?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

You know, he carried on endlessly about our work in the South Pacific and he said, well the Pacific Step Up is actually a Pacific stuff up. That was his words. Well, I tell you what, he's been responsible for the biggest Pacific stuff up of all.  He goes there at a time when the Chinese Communist Party is flexing its muscles. It's clearly seeking to increase its influence across the region. He promises these treaties, that's what, you we're all told that's what's going to happen this week, and he walks away empty-handed. I mean, what an embarrassment, seriously, an embarrassment from a guy who set his own test on this. He said he was going to get this right. Well, he hasn't.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

And you know how these things are set up. You did it yourself. You get it all sorted out before you even step foot on the plane so that when you get over there, you sign it in front of a press conference.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Right, and there's got to be some serious questions asked here about why these things didn't come to fruition and why that work wasn't done, Chris.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

It does indicate to me though that the Chinese have their hooks in these Pacific Islands maybe more than the government leads us to believe.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Yeah, when the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to increase its influence across the world but particularly across the region, and you know their ambitions we saw on display, and the military build-up which is unprecedented. We saw it on display in that propaganda parade, the parade that Dan Andrews decided to participate in. You know, it's extraordinary. Their ambitions, their military ambition is very clear. Their ambition to influence countries across our region is very clear and whilst we should continue to work with the Chinese people on trade opportunities, the Chinese Communist Party is clearly at odds with our interests strategically across the region and we've got to push back and successfully push back on that.

 

CHRIS SMITH:

 

Good to have you on the program. Thank you very much for your time.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Good on you Chris.

 

 

ENDS.