Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

) ( ): My question is to the Prime Minister. Today you said, 'Regional communities should not be forced to carry the national burden when it comes to climate change.' Regional communities are already carrying this burden—drought, bushfires, floods and future trade costs. Our communities are suffering on top of this, with delayed vaccines, lockdowns, economic hardship. But the regions are smart and ready to seize new opportunities—opportunities like community owned renewable energy. You're standing in the way. Why won't you show the leadership that we need and commit to net zero emissions by 2050?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We should achieve net zero as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050. That's what the government policy has been. But I can tell you this: I agree with the member that the impacts of climate change are impacted most greatly across our regions and the agricultural sectors, as we've seen right across the country for many years. But that does not mean that they should shoulder the economic burden of that, greater than other parts of the country. I'm sure the member would agree with me when it comes to those issues. I agree with the member that people in regional communities have shown the innovation—particularly our agricultural sector, but also our minerals sector.

In our mining sector, our global mining companies are leading the way when it comes to transforming their operations to net zero practices. Our farmers are doing it, our miners are doing it, households are doing it and they're all being enabled by the policies of the government to support them, because the way we address this is by ensuring the changes take place at that level, right across the country, and no part of the country should have to carry a greater burden. Our policy is designed to support, whether it's regions or other parts of our economy, the transformations that they're making because they can see that that is not only in the country's national environmental interest, in the planet's environmental interest, but it's also in their commercial interests and it's important for the future of their community, their businesses, their farms and their jobs.

The member would, I'm sure, agree that there are great anxieties about this issue in regional communities. We need to address those anxieties and assure people in regional parts of the country that the plan we have to achieve these outcomes is a plan that they can support, a plan that they can get behind. There are no blank cheques they're being asked to sign off on and they're not being asked to live up to a commitment where there's no plan. It's very important that we're straight with the Australian people about how we achieve these things and that they understand what is needed and how we achieve the technological advances that are necessary to make this a reality, not just here but all around the world and particularly in developing countries. That's what we're seeking to do.

I welcome the very practical initiatives that the member has been putting forward and raising with the government on micro grids. Indeed, micro grids are a policy of this government, as the member for Leichhardt is very aware. These are the practical solutions that take us through and allow regional communities to transition, to transform and to not be left behind as a result of an unfunded, under-planned commitment that others would seek to make at the great cost to other Australians.