Liberals lag corporate Australia on emissions: Labor

Shadow treasurer says the response to its ‘sensible, mainstream’ zero net emissions target has shown up the government.

Labor’s shadow treasurer says opposition to the party’s zero net emissions target has shown how “increasingly isolated” the Prime Minister and his government has become on climate policy.

Jim Chalmers said the Coalition was lagging behind on a zero-net target that had already been adopted by “all of the states and territories, by 73 countries around the world, including the UK under Boris Johnson”.

“We’re talking about all of the big employers in Australia who have signed up to this target,” Mr Chalmers told Sky News on Sunday.

“Rio Tinto during the week signed up to it, and signed up to some big investments in renewables. This is a sensible mainstream target that has been adopted in corporate Australia, right around Australia in terms of state and territory governments, and by the Labor Party. And Scott Morrison’s opposition to it is leaving him increasingly isolated.”

Labor’s 2050 target, which it insists it can meet without halting coal exports or pricing carbon, has been called reckless, irresponsible and lacking in detail by the government.

Asked about the popularity of the policy for Labor in mining-reliant areas of Queensland, Mr Chalmers said he wouldn’t “caricature the position of Queensland to pretend that there’s one homogenous view”.

“It’s my view that Queenslanders want to do something about climate change, it’s my view that we can do something meaningful to get cheaper and cleaner energy in a way that doesn’t abandon some of our traditional strengths in the resources industry for example but also agriculture in a way that is cognisant of the needs of communities which rely on those sectors. That is not beyond us,” he said.

On the budget outlook, Mr Chalmers criticised Treasurer Josh Frydenberg for his economic management prior to the outbreak of coronavirus and the bushfire crisis, saying if updated financial figures this week stifle the projected surplus the government would be failing “a test that they set for themselves”.

“We’ve always acknowledged that the impacts of the coronavirus on the economy will be substantial,” he said.

“The point that we’ve made about the coronavirus is that the economy was quite weak before the coronavirus hit even before the fires hit over this very difficult summer, and the Treasurer unfortunately wants people to forget that growth was already slowing and wages were already stagnant and we had big problems with investment and productivity.

“The surplus is a test that Josh Frydenberg and Scott Morrison asked to be judged on. It’s a test that they set for themselves. It remains to be seen whether they will fail that test.”

On the coronavirus, Mr Chalmers said Labor would support a stimulus plan to respond to the outbreak “if it’s good.”

“There’s been a need for some time for some responsible and proportionate and measured stimulus in the economy, a boost to the economy. It hasn’t just been Labor saying it for some months it’s been the Reserve Bank, the business organisations, the broader community as well.

“When it comes to the Reserve Bank, you know they’ve cut interest rates now to a quarter of what they were during the global financial crisis, which gives you a sense of how difficult things have been in the economy for some time now and not just over the last couple of months.”