Senate debates

Thursday, 8 September 2022

Bills

Climate Change Bill 2022, Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2022; In Committee

11:06 am

Photo of David PocockDavid Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw this truth. In 2022 to be trying to debunk climate science in 10 minutes is why Australians are so frustrated. The arguments we're hearing are about increasing Russian gas prices, which is thanks to the two major parties not actually having good policy in place to prioritise Australians, and that's why we're actually subject to export prices. Let's keep that in mind when we hear the talk of Russia: we don't import gas from Russia. Why are we subjected to those prices? We've heard about how 43 per cent is ambitious, yet there's modelling showing that, if you add up all of the states and territories' commitments, that potentially gets us to 42 per cent. If one per cent is ambitious, I think Australians are going to be asking questions.

We know that climate policy is increasingly complex. In Australia we don't have a cap-and-trade framework, and these reductions in emissions will come from more targeted policies. With this complexity, there's the potential for uncertainty around investment decisions, particularly investment in renewable energy. I'd like to ask the minister: is the government prepared to consider a process that would set out the emissions reductions expected of each sector?

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