Subject:
National Water Security Plan; coal miners
E&OE...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well ladies and gentlemen I have just had a very good meeting with Peter Debnam the New South Wales Opposition Leader. He's indicated to me his very strong support for my $10 billion plan to provide water security in the Murray-Darling Basin and in other parts of the irrigation systems of Australia. I welcome that support. This is an urgent, immediate, practical way of solving a very difficult problem and he and I are both very much of the view that the conservation issue on everybody's mind at the present time is dealing with our water security problem.
And could I also, before taking your questions, could I also say that the most significant piece of news around this morning is this absolutely irresponsible proposal of Bob Brown's to phase out the coal industry within a term of government. That would cost tens of thousands of jobs, it would devastate an industry that's important to the livelihood of thousands of Australian families, it would do immense damage to our export potential and our export capacity.
And I also make the point that everybody knows that the Labor Party's policy on climate change is much closer to that of the Greens than is ours. They share a common, closed mind on nuclear power, they share common views in many other areas on climate change and we also know that Mr Rudd is desperately trying to solicit Green preferences in south-east Queensland and he's already modified his position on dams in that State in order to placate the Greens.
What worries me about this proposal of Bob Brown's is that it's an illustration of the kind of knee-jerk reaction that we are going to get in this climate change debate and that would be very damaging to Australia's national interest. We need a measured, sensible, balanced approach that does not destroy Australia's competitive advantages, does not damage Australian industry and does not destroy Australian jobs.
JOURNALIST:
Just regarding a carbon trading scheme, Federal and State Labor are supporting it and you seem to be dodging the issue?
PRIME MINISTER:
Certainly not, we have a task group between the Government and industry examining it right at the moment. We have shown no reluctance at all to examine it, but I am not going to embrace something that damages Australia's competitive position. I am not going to embrace something that destroys the jobs of Australian coal miners. We have to be very careful that with all the talk and all the rhetoric about climate change we are not stampeded into adopting responses and solutions that damage our competitive position. We've all got to take a deep breath and we've got to say