Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question to the minister is why, with this budget and these reckless targets, is he putting the lives and futures of millions of Australians at risk? Why is the government failing in its first duty to keep Australians safe? We had evidence from the Bureau of Meteorology, which I presume the government accepts despite efforts from its backbench to undermine it, we had evidence at the Senate estimates from the Bureau of Meteorology that said we are on track in Australia for warming of 4.4 degrees by the end of this century—during the lifetime of Australia's primary school students.

The minister for science, if she believes in science, might have some interest in what the Bureau of Meteorology is saying. They are saying our targets are so low that we are on track to create a hellscape in this country by the end of the century, during the lifetime of Australia's primary school students. 4.4 degrees in Australia is what your own bureau is telling you.

What does the government do? The government comes along in the budget and decides to make it worse. Australia signed up to the Paris Agreement. One of the goals in the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to well below two degrees. Why? Because that is the point of no return. Cross two degrees and climate change becomes a chain reaction. You cannot rein it in. Australia has warmed by 1.4 degrees. That was what was behind the devastating bushfires that we saw, and that is what made the drought that we have been living through worse.

In this country we are exposed to the ravages of climate change and the threat it imposes as much as, if not more, than any other country. Our own Bureau of Meteorology is telling us that, unless we massively increase our climate targets by 2030, we are on track for over four degrees of warming in this country. That means, during my daughter's lifetime, a 92 to 95 per cent decline in productivity of our agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin. It means removing our ability to feed ourselves. It means the kind of bushfires we have just seen happening not every few years, but becoming a regular occurrence. It means droughts that we experience becoming more severe. It means that when cyclones hit they will pack an even bigger punch than they are packing at the moment. It is why president-elect Biden has said that climate change is an existential threat. It is a crisis and it is an emergency.

My question to this government is: what is your temperature target that underpins this budget? Let's assume you are going to meet your reckless targets of 26 to 28 per cent emission cuts by 2030—which you won't without dodgy credits, but let's assume you are—what is that consistent with Australia warming by? Do you accept the Bureau of Meteorology's evidence to Senate estimates that Australia is on track to warm by 4.4 degrees during the lifetime of Australia's primary school students, and, if so, what does that mean for Australian farmers? What does it mean for Australian infrastructure? What does it mean for everyone who lives in a bushfire-prone region? One can only be left with the conclusion, after looking at this budget and seeing the money that it has for coal and gas, that the government wants Australia to warm by 4.4 degrees during the lifetime of my kids, during the lifetime of every primary school student in this country. If they want that they should have the courage to explain to everyone who cares about climate change that they are torching Australia.

My next question for the minister is: is he prepared to do what Joe Biden and others have called for, and that is accept countries in our region putting carbon tariffs on our export thermal coal, because clearly this government doesn't seem to accept the science. This government is not prepared to limit global warming to less than two degrees, so are you prepared to let others do the work for us and let South Korea, India and China put tariffs on our thermal coal, which is putting Australia at risk? Seventy-five per cent of our export thermal coal market has just signed up to net zero emissions. You don't seem to have a plan for it, so at the least, Minister, will you let others put tariffs on and make the plan for you, so that we can protect coal workers and protect coal communities from the negligence and recklessness of this Liberal government?

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