Hockey bristles as Brits tackle emissions

JOE Hockey has squirmed under a British inquisition about Aus­tralia’s environmental record.

JOE Hockey has squirmed under a British inquisition about Aus­tralia’s environmental record, retorting it was “absolutely ridiculous” to characterise Australia as the highest greenhouse gas-emitting country in the world.

The Treasurer filmed an appearance on BBC’s Hardtalk, which was to air this morning Australian time. When it was put to Mr Hockey that Australia was “one of the dirtiest, most greenhouse gas-emitting countries in the OECD group of developed countries”, he bristled and said: “The comment you just made is absolutely ridiculous. We’ve got a small population and very large land mass and we are an exporter of energy, so that measurement is a falsehood in a sense because it does not properly reflect exactly what our economy is.”

When the program’s host, Stephen Sackur, persisted, asking about what his government was doing “ to clean up its act” about reducing gas emissions, Mr Hockey replied: “Australia is a significant exporter of energy and, in fact, when it comes to coal we produce some of the cleanest coal, if that term can be used, the cleanest coal in the world.”

Mr Hockey was also quizzed about Tony Abbott’s remarks while opening a coalmine in Queensland on Monday that it was “good for humanity and good the country”.

Gas emissions from the EU, on a per-capita basis, are nearly a third of Australia’s, according to the report.

Mr Hockey said the Australian figures in the OECD report were high because Australia exported large amounts of gas, coal and uranium overseas so that people could use the energy generated to drag themselves out of poverty.