Damage stemming from Australia's climate policy standoff is an "important" issue that should be better addressed, Environment Minister Greg Hunt says, amid fears that toxic politics around emissions cuts is unsettling investors and hurting the economy.
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However, common ground was in short supply when Mr Hunt met Labor environment spokesman Mark Butler at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, in a pre-election debate dominated by disagreement over the best way to address global warming, and suggestions that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will remain beholden to his party's Abbott-aligned climate sceptics if returned to power.
Mr Butler said the federal government's abolition of Labor's so-called carbon tax had "smashed to pieces" Australia's chances of capitalising on jobs and investment in renewable energy after the successful global climate deal in Paris last year.
The change had also allowed carbon pollution levels from electricity to rise by more than 5 per cent in less than two years and "Australia is now pretty much the only major advanced economy where pollution levels are going up, not coming down", he said.
Labor wants at least 50 per cent of the nation's electricity to be drawn from renewable sources by 2030, and would establish an emissions trading scheme to cap and reduce pollution from heavy industry.
All other democracies with a serious climate change policies enjoyed general "consensus between the major parties", Mr Butler said, adding without it, Australia would reach the 2019 election "not having made progress in this area", which would allow business and community uncertainty to persist.
He said the government's Emissions Reduction Fund – the central plank of its Direct Action climate policy, which pays companies to cut their pollution - should not be taxpayer-funded.
A 2017 review of the government's so-called "safeguards mechanism" has the potential to require polluters to emit less.
But Mr Butler questioned if the Liberal Party would allow Mr Hunt and Mr Turnbull to make such a change, adding: "The big handbrake on bipartisan consensus is the question about quite who is in control of this."
Mr Hunt said the question of bipartisanship was "perhaps not sufficiently well asked or answered across all sides" and there was room for convergence around the safeguards mechanism.
The Turnbull government has reversed some Abbott-era attacks on climate agencies and signed up to the Paris climate deal. However, there are doubts over whether the Direct Action plan will produce the deep emissions cuts required.
Mr Hunt said the government's abolition of the carbon tax created "the largest drop in electricity prices in Australian history".
The Emissions Reduction Fund was "arguably the most successful classic market mechanism auction fund in the world", which had led to 143 million tonnes of emissions reduction, he said.
Mr Hunt accused Labor of espousing "empty slogans" and refusing to release detailed climate policy plans until after the election.
Greens Senator Larissa Waters, whose party was not invited to take part in the debate, said later that the major parties were "in furious agreement on approving new coal mines to make global warming even worse and to cook the Great Barrier Reef".
"Neither of the old parties have polices that are adequate to deliver a safe climate, let alone tackle global warming turbocharged by giant new coal mines," she said.
