Corruption, China & Carbon

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3849933.htm Panellists: Greg Hunt, Minister for the Environment; Kate Ellis, Labor MP; Viv Benjamin, CEO of the Oaktree Foundation; Luo Xiaopeng, Chinese economist and political analyst; and Greg Sheridan, Foreign Affairs Editor, The Australian. -- Greg Hunt is the Minister for the Environment. He has represented the seat of Flinders, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, since Peter Reith retired in 2001. He was born in 1965 and has lived in the area for much of his life except when studying and working overseas. His father, Alan, was a State Upper House MP for the region for more than 30 years. Greg graduated in Law from Melbourne University with first class honours and won a Fulbright scholarship to Yale University, where he completed a masters in international relations. Subsequently Greg worked at the UN Centre for Human Rights, as the associate to the Chief Justice of the Federal Court and as an adviser to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. In 1998 he was Australia’s chief observer for elections in Cambodia. Greg and his family live on the Mornington Peninsula in Mt Martha. -- Kate was born in Melbourne in 1977 and grew up in rural South Australia in the Murray River town of Mannum, where her family owned the local bakery. They later moved to Adelaide where Kate attended high school and studied international relations and politics at Flinders University. But a political career beckoned before Kate completed her degree. She began working as a research officer and adviser for federal and State Labor politicians before running for Parliament. In October 2004 Kate Ellis made history as the youngest woman ever elected to the Australian House of Representatives, winning the seat of Adelaide. Following the Labor Party’s election victory in November 2007, Kate was elevated to the ministry as the Minister for Youth and Sport, again making history as the youngest ever Australian minister (previous record holder Paul Keating). Following the re-election of the Gillard Labor Government in 2010, Kate became the Minister for Employment Participation and also had responsibility for status of women, childcare and early childhood. Following the election loss last month she is expected to take a senior front-bench role. In Government Kate worked to provide a genuine voice for young people and is passionate about the power of sport to strengthen communities, tackle the obesity epidemic and define Australia’s national identity. In her spare time she loves to cook, play netball and ‘attempt to keep her garden alive’. -- Viv Benjamin is the leader of Oaktree, Australia's first and largest youth-run aid organisation, with over 150,000 members. Run entirely by volunteers aged 16 to 26, Oaktree has raised millions of dollars to enable over 120,000 youth to break the poverty cycle through education in some of the poorest communities in East Timor, PNG, Cambodia, Africa and beyond. Oaktree's vision is of young people leading a movement to end extreme poverty within a generation. As a teenager, Viv created the Make Poverty History Roadtrips, Australia's largest youth mobilisations against poverty. She is now Co-Chair of Make Poverty History, leading a coalition of over 70 major non-profits, alongside Tim Costello and others. Viv has led campaigns that have helped achieve historic bipartisan commitments to increasing aid. Viv launched the Movement to End Poverty petition which now has almost 90,000 Australians on board. Viv is a Director on the board of Opportunity International Australia, an innovative micro-finance institution that empowers millions of people to lift themselves out of poverty. 97% of micro-finance loans provided are repaid and then lent out again, helping more and more people start small businesses and leave poverty behind. Viv is currently a finalist for AFR's 100 Women of Influence in 2013, to be announced in October. She is completing a double degree in Law and International Politics at Monash University. -- Luo Xioapeng was a founding member of China’s first autonomous reform think tank which contributed to major policies reform in the 1980s. His interest in China’s central-regional and inter-regional relations has spanned three decades and his insight and understanding of the special logic behind China’s economic growth, fiscal system, poverty and labour issues makes him one of the most knowledgeable Chinese scholars in this field. Xiaopeng holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota. He was recipient of a Luce Scholarship at Harvard University and was a visiting scholar at Oxford University. From 2000 to 2005, Xiaopeng worked as China Director for IDE, an international NGO that was actively involved in poverty reduction in South Asia. From 2006 until 2010, he was a guest professor at Zhejiang University. Xiaopeng also worked as a consultant to several prestigious international organisations, such as the World Bank, in the last three decades. Xiaopeng is well known for his influential commentaries on the Chinese economy and politics. In 2013 he joined iSun Affairs, a media company based in Hong Kong, as contributing editor for the magazine iSun Affairs. -- Greg Sheridan is The Australian newspaper's foreign editor and is one of Australia's most respected and influential analysts of foreign affairs. Growing up in Sydney, Greg graduated from Sydney University with an arts degree in 1977 and was an active participant in the student politics of the time, along with future high-profile Liberals Tony Abbott and Peter Costello. He began his journalistic career 30 years ago with The Bulletin, and his coverage of Vietnamese refugee stories in the period after the Vietnam War sparked a lifelong interest in Asia and regional politics. He joined The Australian in 1984 and worked in Beijing, Washington and Canberra before returning to Sydney as foreign editor in 1992. Greg knows the structures and societies of Australia's neighbours intimately and has interviewed prime ministers and presidents in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and many other countries. He is also a keen observer of US international affairs and is on close terms with senior figures in Washington. Greg is the author of several books on Asia and Australia's role in the region. ---- Audience: ALP 35%, Coalition 45%, Greens 11% WEDDING RORTS Shakeel Ali asked: Mr Hunt, it was revealed over the weekend that several senior Coalition MP’s had misused taxpayer’s money to attend weddings and also that PM Abbott had to repay $1095 he claimed when he attended the wedding of Former MP Sophie Mirabella. How can Australians trust your party to be responsible economic managers as Mr Hockey has stated countless times, when senior coalition figures can’t even report their own expenses correctly? SAME SEX WEDDING “RESEARCH” Jamie Roberts asked: If some of our prominent politicians had instead attended same-sex marriages overseas, could they legitimately argue that they were researching an active policy issue before the Parliament, and therefore be entitled to reimbursement from the taxpayer? CHINA’S ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE Xudong Zou asked: Currently China is undergoing a serious anti-corruption drive, with the government taking steps to punish corruption amongst party members. While this seems to be having a negative impact on the economy in the short term, do you think it could lead to positive outcomes in the long term? SHANGHAI FREE TRADE Stewart Lung asked: By opening a free-trade zone in Shanghai, China is recognising the need to meet the world 'half-way' if it is to grow its economy. Is China sending two contradictory messages simultaneously - one to its own people that freedom of speech is limited and to outsiders it is willing to test long-awaited economic reforms? CLIMATE DIRECT ACTION UNNECESSARY Silje Andersen-Cooke asked: An IPCC report came out recently confessing that there hadn't been warming in the past 15 years - and that it's more likely that the benefits of an increased global average temperature will outweigh the possible harm. Yet people believe that taxpayers money should be diverted from things like hospitals and schools to try and solve an issue we're not even sure exists as an issue. What are your thoughts on how much we should really invest in climate change? (PART2) CLIMATE DIRECT ACTION Silje Andersen-Cooke asked: Just on the second part of the question, the report said that there might be some benefits on the warming but we don’t hear about that in the media and I’d like your thoughts on why we don’t? CARBON TAX FACT CHECK Oliver Watkeys from Wyoming asked via Video: During a Lateline interview two weeks ago, you said that under the carbon tax, emissions went up from 560 to 637 million tonnes, implying that this increase had already occurred. However a fact check conducted by the ABC revealed that the 637 million figure was a projection of what carbon emissions would be by the year 2020 with a carbon tax in place. The same report revealed that emissions would be 8 percent higher in the absence of a carbon tax. Did you intentionally misrepresent the findings of this report? And what are your predicted emissions for 2020 under the Coalition's direct action plan? ‘STOP THE BOATS’ AND INDONESIA Renato Manias asked: I am of the opinion that we need to stop the boats, not because I fear a refugee invasion, but simply because as a nation we should not condone an illegal activity that is drowning hundreds of innocent people every year. So many boats are leaving Indonesia, and my perception is that the Indonesian authorities are turning a blind eye to this massive problem, leaving the Australian Navy at mercy of unpredictable situations at sea. Do you think that Indonesia is doing enough to prevent further boats leaving their shores?