Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bradfield for the issues that have been raised. There are actually three amendments coming where the response from the government is the same, because they all deal with the same issue of incorporating climate change powers into environmental approvals, so the answer I give now is relevant to the amendment being moved now by the member for Bradfield, and to amendments that I'm anticipating are going to be moved by the members for Wentworth and for Warringah.

We're not supporting these amendments. As the minister for the environment has previously said, there will be no climate trigger in the legislation. The safeguard mechanism is Australia's main law for reducing emissions and meeting climate goals. That's a decision that we've taken as a government. Under the Climate Change Act 2022, the minister is required to give certain emissions estimates that they have received to the minister for climate change, as well as the Climate Change Authority and the secretary of the climate change department.

The proposed reforms aim to support the safeguard mechanism by requiring developers to estimate and publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions for scopes 1 and 2 and to include plans to reduce and manage those emissions. This information will be required for project assessments, strategic planning, regional approvals and bilateral agreements. These changes will improve transparency and accountability for new developments and support the effective operation of the safeguard mechanism, and are in line with the recommendations of the Samuel review. This is an important step forward to provide the community with confidence that proponents are taking their greenhouse gas emissions seriously and that they have a plan to reduce those emissions in line with Australia's net zero targets.

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