Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker Claydon, and can I start by congratulating you on your re-election as the Deputy Speaker. I'm really excited today that my first contribution to the 48th Parliament is to talk about our environmental reform and how it drives our economy as well. It is no surprise, of course, that what we've heard from the other side is the usual rhetoric we've been hearing forever from them—all climate deniers. You can look at that when you look at the legislation that we've brought into the House. Of course, our first bill yesterday was to cut HECS debt by 20 per cent. What was the first major piece of legislation from the coalition? A bill to scrap action on climate change. Just as we saw with the nine years of inaction when they were in government, they still don't accept the science of climate change and they just want to take the country backwards.

As I said, we had almost a decade of inaction with them. I think there were 20-odd plans they had. They were always changing their minds when they were in government, and of course they went to the last election with their $600 billion nuclear plan. Well, how did that go? The Australian people clearly rejected that. They are sick of this ongoing climate denial from the Liberals and Nationals.

In contrast to all of that, we are absolutely committed to making Australia a renewable energy superpower, and the Australian people support that as well. They endorsed our policies at the election because they involved protecting jobs and protecting the environment. We can do both—we absolutely can—and we're committed to making sensible reforms to better protect our environment and deliver certainty to industry.

As we heard today, the independent Samuel review found that our current laws aren't working to protect the environment for industry and business, so our priority is to fix those laws. The current ones are outdated, and we need the support of the House. They should get on board with this. It's vitally important for our future. If we want to be a renewable energy superpower, if we want a future made in Australia and if we want to protect our iconic natural environment, we all need to be on board with this.

We have made huge advances also when it comes to the energy transition, with record renewable energy generation and our policies across the economy helping drive down emissions and deliver on our targets, very importantly. Renewable energy generation has seen Australia reach new records. It is up in volume by around 30 per cent since we were elected, and that comes from government investment, policies and legislation. That's what the Australian people support, and I just cannot understand how the other side fail to recognise that again and again and again. We see it across the board.

We are the party that's delivered every single major environmental reform in Australia's history, from Landcare to saving the Franklin, protecting the Daintree and Kakadu, building the largest network of marine parks in the world and addressing climate change. It is the Labor Party that continues to do that. It's the Labor Party that continues this record investment in renewable energy. Since we came to government in 2022, we've passed strong laws to force big polluters to cut emissions so Australia gets to net zero carbon pollution by 2050. This and other actions have reduced our emissions. It is vitally important that that's happened, and it has happened only through the absolute commitment of this government.

As I've said, we saw almost a decade of inaction from the Liberals and Nationals. Time and time again, they've come in here saying the same things over and over again. Looking forward, we all have an opportunity to get all these important reforms done, so they should actually look at it and think about the impacts of their decisions on our economy. The decisions they make are destructive. The Australian people have said to those opposite that they do not support their climate denialism, and they have said it many, many times. Those opposite should reflect and listen to the people of Australia and what they have said to them and work constructively with the government to reform our environmental laws to sustain our economic growth into the future. It's vitally important. We can just look at all of those things they did when they were in government over those nine years—so destructive.

The Greens need a bit of time for reflection as well. We saw them blocking so much in the previous parliament, whether it was environmental reforms or housing reforms. Well, the Australian people have spoken to them as well. They're not interested in the constant blocking of reforms, particularly those environmental reforms. So I say to them as well: work constructively, get an outcome and put away the playbook of opposing everything. It's not on. People actually want constructive reform and everyone working together.

So, Liberals, Nationals and Greens, you all have an opportunity now in this parliament to stand up for your communities, deliver environmental reform and drive our economic growth. People want you to do that, so stop playing politics. Stop blocking everything—not just environmental reforms but across housing and so many other areas as well—and drive our economy forward.

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