13 JULY 2014
INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY ALBANESE
ANDREW BOLT, PRESENTER
ANDREW BOLT: Can I start with the carbon tax. Now, Labor this week voted with Palmer against repealing the carbon tax, and at the last election you promised to get rid of the tax. Why did you break your word?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: We didn’t break our word, Andrew. We voted for exactly what we said we would do, which is, we would get rid of the carbon tax, but replace it with an emissions trading scheme. See, we understand that the science is in –
ANDREW BOLT: You said terminate. I saw Kevin Rudd stand there, “I will terminate the tax.”
ANTHONY ALBANESE: And replace it with an emissions trading scheme. We can’t afford to have no policy on climate change. We think the science is in on climate change, and, what’s more, not only are we not climate sceptics, we’re not market sceptics, either. We want to harness the power of the market through an emissions trading scheme, to use that, to drive that change through the economy.
ANDREW BOLT: Alright. Talking about the emissions trading scheme,
the IPC scientist, professor Roger Jones, estimates that, at the very most, if
global warming theory hasn’t been exaggerated, your carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme to achieve the same effect, would cut the world’s temperatures by
4,000ths by one degree by the end of the century. Is he right? 4000ths of one degree? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, Andrew, what we know is that 95% of the
scientists -
ANDREW BOLT; No, no, I’m asking you about that calculation. I’m asking you about that calculation. Is he right,
would your policy achieve a cut in the world’s temperature, by the end of the century, by 4,000ths of one degree? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, Andrew, what we know is that we need to act on climate change, and the best way to do it –
ANDREW BOLT:
But is that so hard to answer, Anthony? What’s so hard to answer, about that question?
You’re asking Australians to pay all this money, what’s the –
ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, no, Andrew, I’m not asking Australians to pay all this money. What I’m asking for, is for the power of the market to drive through change through the economy, so that we drive down emissions.
ANDREW BOLT: To what effect?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: Australians know that 2013 was our hottest year on record.

ANDREW BOLT: I find it amazing -
ANTHONY ALBANESE: You want to talk about scientists –
ANDREW BOLT:
I find it amazing that you guys make Australians pay billions, and you can’t even tell us what that – all that paying actually achieves, and you dodge the question repeatedly. ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, no, I don’t, Andrew –

ANDREW BOLT: Alright, well, tell me how much difference.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: What we’re seeing is that the rest of the world is acting, and that’s the wrong question, Andrew, because –
ANDREW BOLT: Oh, that’s what you guys always say. That’s what you and Tim Flannery always say.
ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, no.
ANDREW BOLT: Pay all this money, we don’t know what it’ll achieve, and if you ask what will it achieve, you say, “Wrong question.” But listen, Labor’s also –