The December 2021 Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory was released today which prompted a fabricated tirade from Mr Bowen.
Memo to Mr Bowen – pretending you’re still in Opposition is no substitute for doing your job in Government.
Reminder for Mr Bowen – you enter office at a time when Australia’s emissions are lower than any time under the previous Labor government; in fact, more than 130 million tonnes lower than Labor forecast they would be with a carbon tax.
In light of Mr Bowen’s obsession with blaming the Coalition, I wonder if he’ll resign as Minister if he fails to deliver outcomes better than the Coalition in three key areas:
Firstly, delivering cheaper power – noting that over the Coalition’s last two years alone, average power costs dropped for households by 8% and businesses between 10% and 12%;
Secondly, beating targets – noting that under the Coalition, Australia beat its Kyoto-era targets by 459 million tonnes and achieve up to a 35 per cent reduction by 2030; and
Thirdly, reducing emissions while delivering economic growth noting that the Coalition handed over the reigns to Labor last month with:
- emissions down by over 21% on 2005 levels and more than 100 million tonnes lower than where Labor forecast they would be when they left office in 2013; and
- an economy that was 45 percent larger.
The big issue households and businesses are grappling with right now is skyrocketing power prices, and Labor promised in the election to reduce prices by 18 percent by 2025. The Australian people expect nothing less than Labor to deliver on this promise.
It is pleasing to see the December 2021 Quarterly Update report a decline in emissions from the National Electricity Market (NEM) in the year to December 2021, down 4.2%. This continuing decline in electricity sector emissions was driven by world leading rates of renewables deployment under the Coalition; more than $40 billion invested since 2017.
While there was a 0.8 percent increase in overall emissions in the December quarter, it is worth noting a rise of 3.4 percent in Australia’s Gross Domestic Product over that period.