Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I also appreciate very much the shadow minister for foreign affairs' discovery of the fact that as foreign minister of Australia I do travel abroad. As I have said in various fora around Australia when asked this, the universal conclusion of foreign ministers around the world is that most foreigners do live abroad. That is why we travel abroad to meet those foreigners. I thank very much the shadow minister for foreign affairs for drawing that basic fact to our attention. My own view—and I share this very much with the member for Curtin, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister for foreign affairs—is that there comes a stage when point-scoring over the cost of overseas travel by political figures demeans our national self-respect.

Opposition members interjecting—

They protest! The author of those remarks was John Winston Howard in his most recent book, Lazarus Rising. And I think that actually goes to the maturity which is lacked in this place on the part of those opposite when it comes to the necessity of either a prime minister or a foreign minister travelling abroad in Australia's national interest.

I also say to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and shadow minister for foreign affairs that when it comes to global action the shadow minister for foreign affairs should contemplate a few basic facts. She should contemplate the fact that we have around the world at present a large number of economies which have already introduced or are in the process of introducing emissions trading schemes. We also have evidence around the world that in, for example, the People's Republic of China or India we see actions of a type we have not seen in previous decades. In 2009 China added 37 gigawatts of renewable power capacity—more than any other country in the world. India has introduced a tax on coal which is expected to generate funds for further research into clean energies. The UK, run by the Tories, has set an ambitious plan to halve its carbon emissions by 2025. And the Republic of Korea has a 2020 emissions reduction pledge to reduce emissions by 20 per cent below business as usual—not to mention Japan, which has a target to improve its energy efficiency by 30 per cent by 2030.

What does all this indicate? It says that there are governments and political parties around the world who recognise the future, recognise the need to act on climate change and recognise the need to put a price on carbon—and there are those who keep their heads stuck firmly in the ground and who refuse to do so. We are acting for this nation's future; you are denying this nation a future.

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