Earn Trust and Friendship of Pacific Neighbours Through Climate Change Policy: Australian Labor Party

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaks to the media during a press conference on day eight of the 2022 federal election campaign, in Brisbane, Australia, on April 18, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

Australia needs to be a credible partner on climate change to rebuild its relationship with Pacific neighbours, including the Solomon Islands, the centre-left opposition spokesperson for Treasury Jim Chalmers said.

Chalmers listed climate change, foreign aid responsibilities, and defence investment management as important factors Australia needs to work on to “earn” the trust and friendship of Pacific nations.

“We need to rebuild those relationships. We rebuild those relationships by being ... a credible partner on climate change, having a credible climate change policy, and we do,” he told ABC on Sunday.

The centre-left Labor party said the Solomon Islands signing the security pact with Beijing was the Morrison government’s “greatest foreign policy failure” since World War II.

“This is the consequence of a government which has cut foreign aid spending. They’ve mocked our Pacific friends when it comes to climate change, and they’ve dropped the ball when it comes to our national security, and that’s what we’re seeing now,” Chalmers said.

The shadow treasurer said the country’s 215 biggest emitting entities would be required to reduce emissions consistent with net-zero by 2050 under its “safeguards mechanism” plan. Those who fail to meet the targets will either be forced to reduce emissions or purchase carbon credits.

“Well, the assumptions in our modelling are identical to the assumptions in the government’s policy, which is that the current cost of carbon abatement is something like $24 (US$17) a tonne,” Chalmers said.

New coal mines would also have a future as long as the world had an appetite for the resource, Chalmers said, noting that their energy mix would change over time.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce speaks to the media during a visit to Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia, on March 23, 2022. (AAP Image/Phat Nguyen)

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the Coalition party would not use the word “transition” because that meant unemployment in regional areas that rely on coal.

“Transition to what? There is no other industry here,” he told ABC. “But we’re investing billions of dollars for hydrogen.”

“What that allows them to do is to see ... there is the other job at the same pay and same conditions.”

The Coalition plans to invest more than $22 billion (US$16 billion) in low emissions technology over the decade while “preserving existing industries and jobs.”

“[Our plan] will not shut down coal or gas production or require displacement of productive agricultural land,” Energy Minister Angus Taylor said in 2021.

Lucas Dow, the CEO of Indian mining company Adani Australia, criticised the political parties for their mixed messaging and said the coal industry and its reliant communities deserved to know if the parties truly supported the sector or not.

“When I’m out and about in regional Queensland, people tell me over and over that they are sick to death of politicians saying one thing about coal in the regions and another in the city,” Dow said, according to the Courier Mail.