Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I invite people listening to this debate to ask themselves a question. The question I'd like people to ask themselves is: why is this parliament and, in particular, this Senate so abjectly failing in its responsibilities in regard to climate change, and, specifically, which group of people in this Senate are most responsible for this chamber failing in its responsibilities to help deliver a safe climate? People might think it's someone like Senator Roberts, who is a climate change denier. I'm sure he wouldn't mind me saying that. It's riddled in all of his speeches. But it's not Senator Roberts who is most responsible for the failings of this chamber to take climate change policy seriously. Is it the coalition? No, it's not the coalition. Even though they abjectly failed to take climate change seriously when they were in government, we all know that's what we're going to get with the coalition.

I'll tell you which group of people it is in this chamber that are most responsible for our collective failures. It is the mob sitting in government at the moment, the Australian Labor Party. Let me tell you why. Just as they do across the full range of progressive issues in this country, they take the hopes, the dreams and the aspirations of progressive people and people who want strong climate action, they absorb those hopes and those aspirations and they do next to nothing. In doing so, they are the biggest blockers of climate action as they are the biggest blockers of true progressive action in this country. They can gab up a storm and they can say, 'We're taking climate change seriously,' or, 'We've got strong policies in place to reduce our country's emissions,' but the actual reality is that that is a load of rubbish.

They are still publicly subsidising the burning of fossil fuels. They are still rampantly approving new coal and gas projects. They are facilitating fossil fuel corporations to lie about their greenhouse gas emissions. They've got a woefully inadequate 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030, and they're about to announce another woefully inadequate target in regard to Australia's 2035 target. Mark my words: it will not be anywhere near what we need to do to meet our Paris obligations of delivering a safe climate for humanity. This is a government that talks up a storm on the one hand and is abjectly failing in reality to deliver strong climate policy on the other hand. They won't even release a report to inform Australians about the risks to our society from climate change.

Climate change is not just the biggest economic risk facing Australia. It's not just the biggest national security risk facing Australia. It is not just the biggest risk to our society. It is the biggest risk to literally everything. We should be doing everything we can in every area all the time to reduce our emissions and take a global leadership position on climate change. But what is the Labor Party doing? Just as they do across a range of other progressive issues, they are absorbing all the hopes, aspirations and dreams of progressive Australia and of the people who want a strong response to the greatest challenge facing humanity at the moment, which is the twin crises of climate and biodiversity collapse, and they are doing nothing with them. In that way, the Australian Labor Party is the biggest blocker to progressive reform in this country and the biggest blocker to strong climate policy. It's not Senator Roberts and Senator Hanson. It's not the Liberals, who have abjectly failed. It is the Australian Labor Party. Shape up. Shape up and do better.