Chris Bowen, thanks for coming on.
Pleasure Leigh, good evening.
[…]
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So, let's say people in coal mines in the Hunter Valley do lose their jobs; what kind of new jobs would you see them transitioning into?
Well, um, I see many thousands of jobs
of unspecified type
being created by good climate change policy, both […] [in] renewable energy, and also in reinvigorating traditional manufacturing industries […].
[…]
So manufacturing jobs: like what sort of manufacturing would you see happening somewhere like the Hunter?
Oh, well, um, when you get the policy settings right, then the private sector can invest in all sorts of opportunities
again of unspecified type, but this time I'll throw in some electorates:
in the Hunter, in Western Sydney, in Western Melbourne, right across the country.
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So I guess, […] if I was sitting in the Hunter watching this tonight, what I want to know is, […] in concrete terms, like what sort of a job would I have? […] do you mean […] in a factory? on an assembly line? Like what sort of jobs do you mean?
Well, I mean jobs that'll be created across the board, Leigh,
and the scope is so wide that I can't name a specific example.
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Before the last election, Labor pledged a 45 per cent cut to emissions by 2030. […] What has changed, now that that target is seen as too ambitious?
Well, we haven't been in office, Leigh, […]
That's not a change, but I'll hand it to you for making a frank admission…
No no no! Totally am not admitting we need to make our climate policy less ambitious to get elected!
[…] Now we've got a very clear commitment to net zero by 2050…
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Labor has had trouble getting its own party united on a policy in this area. If you can't persuade your own party on one direction, how will you be able to persuade the electorate?
Well, I don't necessarily agree with that Leigh, because everybody in the Labor Party accepts that climate change is real and we need a policy to deal with it
except Joel Fitzgibbon, who thinks we need a policy to not lose elections.
Yeah, but there's a lot of wiggle room after that…
[…] In the Labor Party, sure we have a policy debate about mechanisms etc.
particularly for selecting the party leader,
but we are all 100 per cent committed to a climate change policy, which deals with man—
whoopsie-daisy
—uh humankind causing climate change.
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Chris Bowen, thank you very much.
Thank you, Leigh.