QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Environment
Speech

Senator MILNE (Tasmania) (3.33 p.m.)-I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Climate Change and Water (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Milne today relating to proposed developments in Queensland.

Treasury is only modelling global emissions scenarios with a very high risk of triggering runaway climate change, Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, discovered today in Senate Estimates hearings.

Senator Milne said, "I will be writing to Prime Minister Rudd and Professor Garnaut today, outlining the tremendous danger inherent in the scenarios Treasury is modelling, and calling on them to instruct the modelling team to include safe climate scenarios in their work if it is to be worth anything as a guide to public policy.

The Greens have renewed calls for immediate carbon emission reductions after the release of a study into the possible destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.

The study predicts the world's coral reef systems, including Queensland's Great Barrier Reef, could collapse within 30 years if the effects of global warming are not reversed.

"This study calls for rapid reductions in carbon dioxide levels, indicating that the impact of climate change on coral reefs is just around the corner," said Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert.

**REVISED**
The 2006 State of the Environment report is more sceptical about climate change than John Howard.
 
It headlines the topic as 'Australia's variable climate' and excuses the Howard government for a decade of inaction:
 
"It is increasingly clear that the last 50 years of experience with rainfall patterns is not a sufficient time span to plan and design an adequate response to climate variability and change" (p20).
 

The prospect of sprinkling cool water on the ocean or erecting sailcloth shades over Barrier Reef coral to offset climate change indicates tragic desperation, Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
 
"Queensland is the world's biggest coal exporter facing one of the world's greatest environmental tragedies," Senator Brown said.
 
"While John Howard insists Australia remain the world's biggest coal exporter, the Barrier Reef faces wholesale destruction," Senator Brown said.
 
Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603

 
The Howard Policy Agenda 1996 to 2006
 
Over the last 10 years the Howard government has repeatedly pushed climate change policy in the wrong direction. The economics of climate change are straight forward, we need to charge polluters for their emissions and give people and companies incentives to increase efficiency. The politics of climate change, however, has encouraged the Howard Government to spend billions of dollars pushing the economy in the wrong direction. The biggest mistakes of the last decade are:
 

Perverse policy measure

The federal government today was exposed in Parliament for trying to hide from global scrutiny of climate damage to the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef, Australian Greens climate change spokesperson Senator Christine Milne said.
 
"By refusing to back a motion calling for the government to support the listing of the Great Barrier Reef as World Heritage 'in danger', the government signalled that it will not support the 'in danger' listing at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris later this year," Senator Milne said in Canberra.
 

Great Barrier Reef at risk The Great Barrier Reef and other marine protected areas will continue to be at risk from oil spills after the federal government today rejected a move by the Australian Greens to accelerate maritime safety measures.

Greens Senator for Tasmania, Christine Milne, moved in the Senate for the government to bring forward the date by which single-hulled tankers will be banned from Australian waters from 2010 to December 2005.