WORLD> Asia-Pacific
Australian gov't rejects new climate change policy
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-23 14:12
CANBERRA -- The Australian government has dismissed the opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull's climate change stance on Monday.

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"Malcolm Turnbull's new focus on greenhouse gas reduction policy is simply a diversion from internal problems in the opposition," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Monday.

The Australian government has rejected the new stance providing the reason that Turnbull's policy is a mirage.

Senator Wong told the ABC radio that one of Turnbull's reduction ideas would require planting an area half the size of Tasmania every year for a decade to implement, which is impossible to achieve.

Earlier in the day, Turnbull has proposed a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target than the government's 5 to 15 percent by 2020, so as to resurrect a parliamentary inquiry.