Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) | Hansard source

I rise today also to speak on the urgency motion that Senator Rice has put forward. As most of us understand in this chamber—but not all, I'm sad to say—climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. In Australia, indeed, we have seen its devastating impacts, which have increased over recent years and even months: tragic fires, floods, cyclones and more.

Here in the Labor Party, we have always been committed to strong action on climate change. We saw that when we were last in government and we committed to net zero by 2050 some seven years ago. In Labor's view, that is an essential starting point. This is a goal that the CSIRO says will deliver higher wages and incomes, and also lower power costs for Australians. Why? Because we know that renewable energy is in fact cheaper than bringing new coal or fossil fuel power online. It's a goal that the University of Melbourne says will deliver a 20 times greater benefit to the economy than any costs. It's a goal that is not only the right thing to do by future generations here in Australia and around the world but is also the right thing to do by our economic and social goals right now, today.

But as the motion before us, put forward by the Greens—which we don't support—seems to argue against, we need a real path to get there. We can't have passionate speeches; they're not worth much without discernible action and a real plan to get the job done. We want to see in our nation—and Labor has a plan for it—job-creating investment that delivers real emissions reduction. This is a plan where we will need to bring the Australian people with us. I speak to many voters in the course of the upcoming election about their desire to see real action on climate change. But I also speak to voters—the vast majority of voters—who aren't about to vote for a plan that's going to see them out of work and out of a job. That's why they have confidence in Labor's plan and Labor's approach in addressing action on climate change. That's because we know we can have a productive economic future and create a path to zero emissions by 2050.

The Labor Party is the only party that has a medium-term commitment to get us to 2050 with that zero emissions outcome. Its impact on the economy is modelled properly. That is how you get sustainable, enduring and long-lasting action on climate change—not stunt motions here in the Senate. Australia has the potential to become one of the world's renewable energy superpowers, but only if we have the leadership and vision needed to bring Australia together to seize the opportunities in front of us. This can't be about wedge stunts. It has to be about a real path for jobs and that includes the jobs that exist in our fossil fuel industries currently.

The Greens fail to note in their motion the obvious truth that changing where countries buy their fossil fuels from doesn't reduce global emissions one bit. We have seen this happen before with much of the offshoring that's already happened in Australia. We have seen jobs go offshore to countries with dirtier fuels, lower safety standards and lower labour standards. So we don't support the motions before us today, but what we do support is a strong plan. Labor's put forward a strong plan that will deliver $24 billion in public investment to Australia's efforts to address climate change and energy transformation, energy transformation of our coal- and gas-powered electricity generation here in Australia. That public investment is absolutely critical to increasing the penetration of renewables in the electricity grid. The independent modelling of Labor's plan shows that we can reach 82 per cent penetration of that production of energy by 2030—that is, 82 per cent of our nation's electricity by 2030 will be renewable.

We know that this transformation is already happening. Renewables and storage are already the cheapest form of new energy. We know that the international outlook for coal is becoming more constrained. Ultimately the market and a commitment to global action will be the decider of timing of fossil fuel exits. But, I have to say, the market is already deciding. Eighty per cent of global GDP is already decarbonising. This will have serious implications for our resources sector in coming years. We will be here to support the sector to reorganise itself to create the jobs of tomorrow.

We've got more than 140 countries worldwide signed up to the NZE2050. But this government's Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and his National Party buddies like to pretend that the world won't change. They've got their heads well and truly in the sand. The simple fact is—and we know that the Greens know it already, but they have to find a deeper way of politicising this to wedge the Labor Party—Labor knows, business knows, Australians already know that global capital is already moving.

Here with Prime Minister Morrison we have yet again a man without a plan. We have a Prime Minister without a vision and a path to get us to the future, to get us to that better future that we all, as Australians, deserve. There hasn't been a new coal-fired power station built in Australia since 2009. Given how renewable energy generation has now become dominant since then, the Labor Party doesn't see that changing. The Greens would have Australia exit coal and gas tomorrow, but with no plan for workers, communities or our energy system. We are making those plans for that transition.

The government tries to use taxpayer funds for coal-fired power stations that the market won't even touch. Labor knows that this exposes taxpayers to a massive carbon liability. So here we are with clowns to the left and jokers to the right. We have an opportunity here for a solid, stable government that believes in real action on climate change. We will have that opportunity before us at the next election. We're confident in the way that we are taking our climate change policies out to the Australian people. They have strong support from business, strong support from environmental groups and strong support from the community.

We've seen in the last two months alone the closure of three coal-fired power stations in our country being brought forward. With the election imminent, we're not here blaming Scott Morrison and his energy minister for those closures. The fact is that those closures have nothing to do with government policy. This is about the market operating.