Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the following matter be referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee for inquiry and report by 2 August 2021:

The need to reduce carbon pollution from the transport sector, with particular reference to:

(a) the need to urgently transition to a net zero economy by 2035 to address the climate crisis, including through emissions reductions in the transport sector;

(b) the urgent need for government policies to support a rapid transition to electric vehicles, including through consumer incentives, government procurement and other policies;

(c) opportunities for the manufacturing of electric vehicle and electric vehicle components in Australia;

(d) the need for federal resourcing and planning to support walking and cycling;

(e) reducing emissions from shipping and aviation;

(f) the need for a broader transport transition plan, to coordinate and support workers, communities and companies in the transition to a net zero economy; and

(g) any other related matters deemed relevant by the committee.

I'm proposing this inquiry because what is missing from this place, other than in Greens contributions in multiple debates, is serious consideration of the most existential issue facing humanity today both here in Australia and around the world. Basically, if global humanity doesn't do what's necessary to tackle our climate crisis then we are cactus.

Almost 20 per cent of the carbon pollution from Australia comes from transport. We have to tackle our transport pollution if we are serious about tackling our carbon pollution. But at the moment there isn't a way forward that has been proposed by this government or this parliament. A few weeks ago we saw the Liberal Party's release of their Future Fuels Strategy discussion paper, and in a way it actually summed up the Liberal Party's approach to electric vehicles, to transport emissions and, indeed, to the climate crisis. It was late, it was devoid of meaningful content and, basically, it was just pathetic.

Before I go on with the specifics of what this inquiry would encompass, which I envisage would enable us to lay out what we could and should be doing in the transport sector to slash our carbon pollution to zero as soon as possible, I want to lay out the problem of our climate crisis, because it does not seem to have sunk in to most people in this place what a huge problem we are facing.

Barely over a year ago we saw Australia burn. We had more than 12.6 million hectares burnt in the 2019-20 summer fires. Twenty per cent of the mainland forests of Australia burnt, including forests that have never been burnt before in thousands and thousands of years. There were over three billion animals killed. The smoke from the fires alone was linked to more than 4,000 hospital admissions and 445 deaths, and that is in addition to the 30-odd people who, tragically, were killed in the fires. This has occurred with global warming of just over one degree, so frankly I am terrified to think of what we will face with three or more degrees of warming by the turn of the century. That turn of the century—I just want you to think about this—is in 79 years time. That's within the lifetime of the children and the grandchildren who we love and hold dear today. We are facing an existential crisis of more than three degrees of global warming.

Tragically it's not just fires. The climate crisis means multiple species are facing extinction, with the homes they live in disappearing as climate change causes our environments to become hotter and drier and fires more intense and more frequent. We know there will be extreme weather—it's not just fires, it's also floods—and we've already seen insurance costs in Queensland absolutely skyrocket and become incredibly difficult to get. People can't get insurance for their property. We're seeing the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef affecting so many other precious life forms in our oceans. And we're seeing the rising sea levels, the rising tides and the threats to shore-front properties, infrastructure and people's whole towns.

At the moment we're at about 1.2 degrees of warming. There is strong evidence that, at or around 1.5 degrees of warming, both the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets will have reached their tipping point—that is, melting will be locked in because of the level of heat that's in the atmosphere. Can we just stop and think about what that means. The melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets means eight metres of sea level rise. Current science is saying that, on the way to that eight-metre rise, we're looking at somewhere between two and three metres of sea level rise by the turn of the century—again, in the lifetime of children alive today. I'll give you one example of what that means. The Fishermans Bend development project that's currently underway in Melbourne is touted as the largest urban renewal development in the country. It's projected to be home to approximately 80,000 residents by 2050 and provide employment for up to 80,000 people. The only problem is that, by 2100, the vast majority of it will be under water, because it is all less than two metres above sea level, as will a huge area of our coastal cities, including places like my childhood home in Altona in Melbourne.

This is the problem we are facing and, sadly, our current Liberal government has failed Australia. There have been years of opportunity when we could have acted at much lower cost than what we are facing now. Future generations are going to pay the price for the greed, the hypocrisy and the selfishness of the fossil fuel barons and their lackeys in the Liberal Party. The Labor Party is not much better. They don't even have a target for carbon reduction by 2030. They are saying 'zero carbon by 2050', but 2050 is too late. The science is in. We need to be reaching zero carbon well before then. Delaying action is the new denial. We need to act on our climate crisis, and that is the underlying reason for this referral.

As I've said, transport is 20 per cent of our carbon pollution. We are well underway in the shift to renewable energy in the electricity sector, but that's not the case in transport. There was an article in The Guardian today basically saying the amount of solar and wind coming online is happening faster than was expected; it's providing power at a cheaper rate than was expected, causing electricity prices to come down; and it's going to mean earlier closure of the coal fired power stations than was previously expected. It's also inevitable that, with that reduction in the price of renewable electricity, it's going to outcompete gas on price within a couple of years.

So things are happening when it comes to stage 3 energy but we are lagging when it comes to transport. It's absolutely essential that we sort out how we can shift to zero carbon transport as soon as possible. Currently, we are just missing out on so many opportunities. The most obvious one is the Liberal Party's failure to act on electric vehicles. This was a real opportunity for Australia. We could have had really exciting opportunities in embracing new technologies. We could have built our science and research sector up in supporting the shift to electric vehicles. We could have supported Australian manufacturing opportunities in components for batteries or maybe even entire vehicles. Wouldn't that be amazing—building entire vehicles here in Australia? We could have made driving around this continent cleaner, greener and cheaper for everybody. Instead, we had our Prime Minister running a campaign against electric vehicles during the election campaign. We know that there were claims that tradies couldn't possibly drive an electric vehicle and that nobody was going to be able to tow anything. After the election was over, I asked the department of the environment if there was any substance to the claims made during the election campaign, and, of course, there wasn't.

We are broken down at the side of the road when it comes to electric vehicles. Other countries are zooming past us, racing along. The conservative UK government now has a commitment to ensuring that all new vehicles sold in the UK after 2030—that's in nine years time—will be electric vehicles. And that radical environment group General Motors has announced that all of its vehicles are going to be electric from 2035. Around the world, many countries are offering clear incentives and support for consumers, enabling them to drive clean, green electric vehicles. But in Australia we've got the Liberal Party and our Liberal-National government sitting on their hands.

As a result, we're becoming a dumping ground for manufacturers who know that they can take their dirty, polluting and inefficient vehicles and bring them to Australia because the Liberal Party will not protect Australians or the environment. We need to be improving our vehicle emissions standards, because Australia is lagging years behind the rest of the world, leaving us with dirty, polluting cars that are damaging our health.

What's more, the Liberal Party's failure at a Commonwealth level has led to greater problems at a state level. We've seen toll-road companies lobbying for state governments to impose taxes on electric vehicles. To be clear, there is a debate that needs to be had about road charging, and we know that congestion charging could deliver real benefits. We need to have that discussion here about road pricing. But dirty deals being done behind closed doors with no community consultation must not be how we determine national transport policy. We are very glad to see that opposition to these short-sighted taxes is mounting in Victoria and South Australia.

In the meantime, I'm glad the Senate's agreed to send my COAG Reform Fund Amendment (No Electric Vehicle Taxes) Bill 2020 off to the Economics Committee to examine it. It's a very straightforward bill that would ensure those jurisdictions that impose unfair taxes on electric vehicles would lose the revenue they'd get from those taxes.

There's a real opportunity for national leadership here. If the Liberal Party is going to try to hold things up on electric vehicles, it must not be an excuse for state governments to make things even worse and impose additional barriers on electric vehicles. Beyond electric vehicles, the Liberal Party's failure to act on climate has huge implications for the transport sector. There is a recent report by ClimateWorks entitled Moving to zero:accelerating the transition to zero emissions transport. It spells out why this is so important. It says:

Transport is the fastest growing and third largest source of emissions in Australia, behind electricity and stationary energy sectors. Australia's road vehicle fleet is one of the most energy- and emissions-intensive in the world; the nation's per capita aviation emissions are the world's highest. An opportunity exists for Australia to turn these trends around and become a global leader in zero-emissions transport.

That report highlights the need to act and that there is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference.

Crucially, they say it's not a moonshot. The strategies to inform Australia's transport networks are known, with many ready to be implemented this decade. Widespread, rapid adoption of well-established solutions, along with mature and demonstrated technologies, can achieve much of what is needed this decade. Substantial investment in research, development and commercialisation can close the gap to zero emissions across the transport sector. The report provides clear recommendations for action across the country, of how we can do what we need to do to address the climate crisis.

Hence, this referral to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee. I think this Senate needs to be looking at reports like this. It needs to be looking at the research and it needs to be saying, 'What can we be doing in the transport sector to reach zero carbon transport as quickly as possible?' and laying out, as per the terms of reference, some of the things that would be addressed in this inquiry and what needs to be done. We would end up with recommendations, I expect, that the government needs to provide a clear plan. It is a clear, necessary role for government, because it's government inaction that's causing problems.

It's not just about electric vehicles for passengers. We need to work out what we're going to do with heavy vehicles, freight, aviation and shipping. How do we shift them to zero carbon as well? It's possible. Other countries around the world are tackling it. We are sitting on our hands and not taking the action that's needed.

There is massive benefit as well in actually giving people the opportunity and the choice to shift out of their private vehicles and into public transport. It's so straightforward to make public transport zero carbon. Electric trains, electric trams, electric buses, electric ferries—not difficult to imagine. There are big benefits for healthy and livable cities too, if you get that mode shift and give people the choice to get out of their private vehicles and into public transport.

We also need to get serious about walking and cycling as transport modes. A healthy, balanced, zero carbon passenger transport mix in our cities would be around a third of trips being undertaken by private electric cars, powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, a third being zero carbon public transport and a third being walking and cycling. For the regions, again, if you've got electric vehicles, fast trains and buses to connect the regions to each other and to the cities, and high-speed rail between Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, we can reach zero carbon transport.

I call upon the Senate to support this important referral to lay out the evidence base of what can and must be done so that we can reach zero carbon in transport, just as we can across the whole sector of the Australian economy. Thank you.