Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my honourable friend for his question and his leadership on matters of climate. As the member for Macnamara knows, the Albanese government was elected with a mandate of developing a framework of policy consistency for emissions reduction by our 215 biggest emitters by reforming the safeguard mechanism. On 9 January I went to Gladstone to announce the details of this policy, the government's preferred position, and we very much welcome the responses we've received from that.

This is important. The emissions reductions achieved by this policy are equivalent to taking two-thirds of Australia's cars off the road. That's the size of the task. An important part of this reform is delivering below-baseline crediting. It's creating safeguard credits so that firms and facilities have an incentive to reduce their emissions even more than they're required to under the law. It's a very important part of the reform, and it's the only part of the reform that actually needs legislation; the rest will be done by regulation.

I always want to be fair about these matters, and I want to give credit where it's due: this was part of the policy we inherited from the previous government. In response to the expert panel on low cost abatement, the previous government announced that they would introduce below-baseline crediting, that they would introduce safeguard credits. That's what they said they would do. The former minister for energy announced that they would do it. We know the noalition opposes all of our policies, including the National Reconstruction Fund, but I have to report that the noalition has spiralled to such levels that it's now opposing its own policies. They're against their own policies.

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