Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and remind her that, firstly, I can't comment on any individual project and, secondly, this government has done more to act on climate change during our short time in office than any previous Australian government. This includes when we were last in government, when the Greens political party teamed up with the Liberals and the Nationals to knock off action on climate change.

The truth hurts, doesn't it? The most important thing we've done to get Australia on that trajectory to net zero, which we are so committed to on this side of the chamber, is introduce the safeguard mechanism. The crossbench and the Greens political party supported the safeguard mechanism when it was introduced. In fact, your environment spokesperson, Senator Hanson-Young, said:

… a hard cap on emissions, meaning real pollution must actually come down and the coal and gas corporations can't buy their way out of the cap with offsets. This puts a limit on coal and gas expansion in Australia. Pollution will now go down, not up.

That's the safeguard mechanism that you negotiated, you voted for, you supported and we support, because it takes Australia on that pathway to net zero.

Just on the issue of emissions: obviously, one of the areas where we are making enormous inroads on this side is in the transformation that will lead Australia to becoming a renewable energy superpower—again, something that we on this side are absolutely committed to doing. In my time as environment minister, I have so far ticked off 42 renewable energy projects, which is the equivalent of powering two million homes in Australia.

The Treasurer has asked me how many renewable energy projects are in Sydney. I can tell you Australia has one of the greatest penetrations of rooftop solar anywhere in the world—3.6 million Australian homes. Ordinary Australians have realised that cheaper, cleaner renewable energy is good for the family budget and good for the environment. That's why we've set our target of 82 per cent renewable energy, and we're well on track to meeting that.

I'll leave the honorary member with this thought: a decade of fighting about climate change has led nowhere. We're committed to action. (Time expired)

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