Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to rise to speak to the Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 today. The Greens will always fight for clean energy. We will always fight for the thousands and thousands of jobs that that will provide in the regions, including in my home state of Queensland. We will always fight to stop a future Dutton led government from undermining the clean energy sector, because they don't accept the climate science and are instead propping up coal and gas with the fig leaf of nuclear.

I'm absolutely thrilled that we were able to secure the chamber's support to make sure that we passed this bill today. I'm very pleased that some of the crossbench voted with us to make sure that, if we're not finished debating this bill by one o'clock, we can actually vote on it. What we're voting on here is about making sure that the government can continue to back in renewable energy. Thanks to the amendment that the Greens were able to make in the other place, that's precisely what this bill can now do. Originally it had a slightly different—but also good—purpose.

In order to protect the renewables sector from a future Dutton government, we've managed to put into law the Capacity Investment Scheme, which is the government's underwriting of clean energy projects. To put that in English: this bill, thanks to the Greens amendment in the House, will now protect 32 gigawatts of clean energy in law, and it would take both chambers to undo that. Even if we get a Dutton led minority government in the other place, I don't think they're going to be able to get the numbers in the Senate. I'm really pleased that today we'll be able to lock into law support for clean energy.

We've seen many communities and individuals across the country take the opportunity of clean, renewable energy to power their homes, farms, community services and businesses. With proper support for communities we can build prosperity and a safe climate by decarbonising our energy systems. That's what this bill seeks to do: provide certainty for communities and the industry in a renewables rollout. As I mentioned, we've improved it further by Dutton-proofing the Capacity Investment Scheme. The Capacity Investment Scheme is the government's key policy to reduce emissions and to achieve the 82 per cent renewables target by 2030. Right now, prior to this bill passing, it's very vulnerable to sabotage by the Dutton coalition because it was only created by regulation. The Leader of the Opposition could dismantle it on day 1 of getting into the Lodge—if he gets there, if the various folk in the other place decide to support a Dutton minority. If it were repealed, renewables investment would come to a grinding halt.

The Greens amendment, which passed the House, which is now incorporated in the bill that's before the Senate, would enshrine the government's Capacity Investment Scheme into law. That means that our amendment has Dutton-proofed the Capacity Investment Scheme. It cannot be unilaterally repealed if there were to be a coalition government or minority government. By enshrining it into law it will oblige the next two governments to meet the 32-gigawatt renewables and storage target by 2030. That's made up of 23 gigawatts of renewable generation and nine gigawatts of dispatchable energy. That will ensure that critical investment in the renewables rollout can continue smoothly. As many folk know, that's important for creating market confidence, and it's essential for the rapid decarbonisation that's needed to address the climate crisis.

So the Greens are using their balance-of-power position in parliament to push for better climate outcomes by Dutton-proofing it from the climate destruction of the LNP. The Liberals and the coal and gas industry are doing everything they can to slow down action on the climate crisis. They're spruiking nuclear, which, as we all know, would simply prolong coal and gas, and they're pouring time and money into undermining the transition to renewables. We've seen ridiculous billboards by the likes of Advance Australia. We've seen anti-offshore wind community campaigns. We've seen the National Party whip up fear in the community about renewable energy. I don't see them standing with the same farmers when it comes to coal or coal seam gas wrecking farmland, but, hey, they clearly pick their battles.

What we've also seen in the news this week is that Australia has already shot past 1½ degrees of warming and that the world is on track for a catastrophic 3.1 degrees of warming. We have got to be doing absolutely everything we can to decarbonise as rapidly as possible. We've got to transition to 100 per cent renewables as soon as we can. We cannot afford to have existing policies slide backwards, which is exactly why we moved to Dutton-proof this key emissions reduction policy.