Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will also support this bill. We've all had the chance in here to reflect on the truly heroic efforts of volunteer firefighters and the sacrifices that they've made, including, tragically, for some, the ultimate sacrifice. Making payments to volunteer firefighters tax-exempt is a simple and logical thing to do that will provide a little bit of extra support for the brave men and women who have given us so much.

The Greens also support the granting of deductable gift recipient status to the Australian Volunteer Support Trust and the Community Rebuilding Initiative. The Greens acknowledge the efforts of the Business Council of Australia in having established these trusts so quickly, in encouraging the business community to donate and in directing donations to families of people who have died or been seriously injured and to communities who face the enormous task of rebuilding in the face of these devastating fires.

I also wanted to just quickly put on record that I hope the Business Council of Australia's concern for bushfire victims, and the victims of future disasters, will signal a shift in their policies and their rhetoric around climate change. Right now, the Business Council of Australia are amongst the most powerful forces in this country, and in this place, stopping climate action. This summer's bushfires are the direct result of climate change. The evidence is clear and undisputable. So, and I say this genuinely, if the Business Council really care about the victims of bushfires and of other natural disasters that we know are being exacerbated by climate change—and I suspect many of their members do care deeply about these issues—the most effective thing they can do now is support phasing out fossil fuels as quickly as possible. They say they support a price on carbon, but then opposed a successful one that was legislated in this place by the Greens in the previous Gillard Labor government. They've cheered as loudly as anyone when the political wrecking ball that was Tony Abbott repealed the carbon tax. And, not content with having knocked out a first-class carbon price and a clean energy package, they waged war against the Turnbull government's fourth-rate National Energy Guarantee, calling for a 45 per cent reduction in CO2 by 2030 and labelled it as 'economy wrecking'—a catchphrase that quickly caught on with many on the other side of this chamber.

So the Greens hope that the establishment of the Australian Volunteer Support Trust and the Community Rebuilding Trust are signs that the BCA recognises that we are in a climate emergency and that we need to take action now to completely transition our economy to being 100 per cent renewable. In fact, we'd love to see a public declaration from the Business Council of Australia to that effect. I think that would be greatly appreciated by many in the Australian community, as well as their efforts to quickly get these initiatives up and running. I certainly hope that especially the executives in the fossil fuel companies that are members of the BCA share the sentiments that many Australians share—that what we're seeing now is devastating, that the impacts have been devastating and all-pervading through communities right around Australia, whether they be directly impacted or whether they be witnessing this, and that we are likely to see a future of more extreme weather events, more tragedies and more catastrophes if we don't make the transition as quickly as possible, listen to the science and get out of coal, oil and gas.