Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The first job of government is to keep people safe. Today's climate statement reinforces the enormous threat of the climate crisis to Australia's national security. So why is Labor backing the Beetaloo, Barossa, Scarborough, Browse and Narrabri gas projects that will fast-track climate collapse? With today's figures showing emissions rising this year under Labor, why is Labor opening new coal and gas projects and making Australian people less safe?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. Today, the government did release the annual climate change statement, which is a requirement under the Climate Change Act passed by this government and this parliament, and I released the latest projections, which show we are now on track to achieve a 42 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, up from 40 percent last year and getting closer to our 43 percent target.

But we have more to do. With 72 months between now and 2030, it is a big list, but we are pleased with the progress we've made so far. We're pleased with the fact that projections are now on track to come down by 43 per cent.

The honourable member asks about the need for new gas and other approvals. I make this point: we also released the Climate Change Authority advice today. One of the recommendations of the Climate Change Authority advice was to ensure adequate gas supply to gas-fired power stations as part of this transition—a recommendation we accept and are implementing. That's why we brought down the gas code to ensure that new gas is enabled for domestic supply, not international exports. This is the code the Greens sought to disallow. The Greens gas campaign died the day they moved to disallow the gas code. It died that moment because their credibility went down the gurgler at that point. We know that. The 'no-pposition' didn't know what to do—they didn't turn up. The Greens moved the disallowance. Who turned up to vote with them? Senator Canavan, the One Nation party and Senator Babet—the coalition of craziness. This is the degree of sophistication the Greens political party have brought to this debate. Yes, we need to ensure an adequate supply of gas to the gas-fired power stations to underpin this most important economic transformation.

The honourable member talks about coal. We continue to need metallurgical coal in particular. I've got to say we need more steel for this transition than ever before. Transmission towers can't be built with papier-mache. It just can't be done. We need more steel across the world, including in Australia, and that requires coking coal while we're waiting for green steel to come on. All of this is part of the important economic transformation. We will continue to manage getting emissions down and jobs up. Slogans do not get emissions down. They do not get jobs up. Paddling around Newcastle Harbour does not get emissions down and does not get jobs up. Good policy gets emissions down and jobs up, and that's what the Albanese government will continue to deliver.