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

We continue with this awful Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment (Using New Technologies to Fight Climate Change) Bill 2023, and, yet again, we have young people here watching this debate in the Senate on a bill that will affect their future. For a full week of Senate sittings we had Senator McAllister ducking and weaving like Muhammad Ali in his prime—avoiding answering questions and avoiding going to the substantive part of this bill and revealing what, on Friday, it took our Minister for Foreign Affairs to come clean about: what this bill is actually about. I mentioned Muhammad Ali. It's probably unfair on Muhammad Ali because the thing that Labor are missing are the moral spine, the moral fortitude and the conviction of someone like that. This bill lays that bare. For the young people up there, this is a bill that the government is putting forward at the behest of the gas industry—in Senator Wong's words, Santos, Woodside and INPEX—to create loopholes to allow the fossil fuel industry to continue to expand and approve new gas projects. The Labor government knows that that will come at the expense of our future. They know that they don't somehow have some sort of exemption from atmospheric physics and the earth's systems. You're watching our government ram through a bill, with the support of the coalition, that will lead to a worsening climate. It is so outrageous, deeply troubling, shameful and negligent for a government in 2023 to come forward with a bill that will facilitate the expansion of the gas industry.

Over the weekend I was looking at a report by the Australian Academy of Science from March 2021 that explored the risks to Australia of a three-degrees-Celsius warmer world, which, despite what you hear from Labor, who have a great sales pitch on climate, we're on track for. Labor's commitments aren't in line with our Paris commitments.

They talk up a huge game on the transition—and I commend them for their work on transitioning our electricity generation to renewables. It is a critical part of the puzzle. We have to go fast. But, at the same time, we have to stop expanding the fossil fuel industry. We know that. We've been told it time and time again, not just by climate scientists but also by organisations like the International Energy Agency. Civil society has been urging government. We saw people vote in record numbers at the last election for minor parties and Independents, who are in here to represent them, to stand up for our future against this recklessness of the major parties.

How embarrassing is it that we have legislation whereby the government is willing to stand up in here and say, 'This is for Inpex and Santos and Woodside' and at the same time take donations from those companies—take donations from companies that have no credible transition plan. Santos and Woodside are banking on us not taking climate action. They're banking on your children having a harrowing future on this incredible continent if we're heading for three degrees Celsius. And I fear that what we're hearing from Labor is just some sort of surrender to the wishes of the gas companies.

It doesn't have to be this way. We're being told that things are dire. Turn on the TV: things are dire. But our decisions now matter. Our decisions now are critical. We have a small window to act. Australia is one of the biggest fossil fuel exporters in the world, and as a middle power we can and must play a critical role in this. We need leadership. I urge the Albanese government to show leadership. Leadership on climate looks like listening to climate scientists, listening to young people who are begging you to look after their future. It doesn't look like the sea dumping bill.

Minister, given the number of questions last week that went to consultation, representations that had been made by various companies and groups, and the answers you gave, would you like to correct the record for the Senate after the contribution of Minister Wong in question time?