Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this urgency motion. In doing so, I have a revelation to make to those opposite. It might shock them. Some may be horrified and they'll rush away to check their diaries. It's not a revelation to the rest of us. We know the date. We know what year it is. But I feel I need to inform those opposite that it is 2021.

One more year has slipped away—one more year of the Morrison government's inaction on climate change and carbon emissions. One more year; one more lost opportunity. It's one more year in a run of many years through three Liberal Party prime ministers—yes, three—that have done nothing to curb our country's emissions, one more year of coalition infighting, one more year of denialism and one more year of failure when it comes to meeting our international obligations and when it comes to the future of our planet and our way of life. It's a failing in our moral obligations as global citizens.

The European Union plans to introduce a carbon border tax which would require Australian exporters to pay a levy based on the amount of carbon used in making and shipping their products. The levy on exporters would equal the cost European producers face through having to buy carbon emission permits via the EU's emissions trading system. The world has moved on without us, and, sadly, we are left behind. We are no longer at the table and we are no longer even invited to the meetings, and now the Morrison government's smug denialism, parochial dog whistling, short-term political manoeuvres, win-at-all-costs mentality and, most of all, absolute lack of vision and leadership have doubled back to bite us and to potentially savage our exporters. Suddenly the cold, hard truth, the cost of doing nothing, has reared up in the Morrison government's face, and suddenly the cost of doing nothing in 2021 is very, very real. The European parliament's decision gives initial backing to the EU's carbon border levy, and Brussels is now working towards US President Joe Biden's emission-busting goal of a global climate club. That's a club that we won't be able to join—not under the Morrison government, anyway.

European politicians and analysis expect the US, Britain and potentially even China to get behind the plan to jointly adopt carbon border taxes, and our exporters are now at serious risk because the Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, and his science-denying cronies are frozen to the spot and living in the last century. On top of that, the EU is also insisting on stronger climate targets as a condition of the free trade agreement that it is negotiating with Australia.

I call on the trade minister, Mr Dan Tehan, to publicly explain how the Morrison government's climate inaction will affect the proposed free trade agreement with the European Union. He needs to come and tell us how it is going to affect the proposed free trade agreement with the European Union. I call on him to explain the cost of doing nothing to the farmers, the foresters, the fishers, the miners, the manufacturers, the innovators and the investors of Australia. Let them hold him to account, particularly when we know that many of Australia's largest exporters support the net zero target. They understand Australia can become a clean-energy superpower, leading to stronger economic growth and more jobs.

More than 120 countries worldwide have adopted a net zero emissions target and more than 70 per cent of Australia's two-way trade is now with countries moving to net zero by the middle of the century—yes, this century, just 29 years away. And yet, with all this hanging over our heads, Mr Morrison has said, 'I am not concerned about our future exports.' Well, I am, Mr Morrison, and so is the Australian Labor Party and a lot of Australians. Just a few days ago the Nationals leader, Mr Michael McCormack, said that he was not worried about what might happen in 30 years time. It's 29 years now, Mr McCormack. He clearly doesn't know that it's now 2021. Absurdly, the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor, decided that Australia was 'dead against' carbon tariffs and was somehow trying to twist the EU proposal as protectionism when, as noted by Laura Tingle on ABC News:

… in fact these tariffs would aim to level the playing field for local industries against free-rider countries like Australia who won't engage in real climate policy action …

This government is in a state of climate and energy policy chaos, which we can now clearly see will lead to dwindling opportunities for our exporters. Those exporters are rightly and extremely worried about future exports. Of course they are. Their jobs rely on thinking ahead, and they've been doing it for many years. I'd also mention the many, many workers that they employ in this country. They completely understand that this is the year 2021 and it is past time for genuine leadership and action from this Australian government, the Morrison government.

Net zero emissions by 2050 is a target backed by every state and territory in Australia, key business groups, the National Farmers Federation, big resource companies, our biggest airline, our biggest bank and countless experts and scientists. Mr Tehan must now explain how the government's failure to adopt a target of net zero emissions by 2050 will affect Australian exports and jeopardise Australia's free trade agreement negotiations with the EU. Maybe now—now that there is a tangible financial cost to doing nothing, now that the cost of inertia and irresponsibility will hit the government's hip pocket and the hip pockets of some of the big businesses who support them—Prime Minister Morrison will call the climate-denying rabble in his government to order and show some leadership. It's about time.

Australia needs to adopt a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but we need to start that process now. We need it legislated. In 2021, that is blindingly obvious. We have known about this for a very long time. It is also blindingly obvious that the Morrison government has its head in the sand about carbon borders and our exporters with the jobs that they create, because they are the ones that will pay the price. It is the exporters that provide the thousands of jobs around this country that will pay the price for the inaction of this government in relation to climate change. This government, caught in a loop of smug inertia, should pay the ultimate price at the ballot box at the next election for their inaction on reducing Australia's carbon emissions and the effects of that inaction on the Australian community.