Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

I'd like to start by acknowledging the work of my Nationals Party colleague, Barnaby Joyce, who has been leading the charge on this topic through his Repeal Net Zero Bill in the other place, and many of my other Liberal and Nationals Party colleagues who are supporting him in these endeavours.

Australia committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the Glasgow climate change conference in December 2021. We did so on the premise that the whole world was decarbonising and that the major emitters were going to take it seriously, and, four years on, it's obvious that that's not the case.

Since then, energy prices have surged, industries have shut down and other countries are not pursuing net zero emissions. Net zero has left Australia poorer and with less industrial capacity.

Ever since adopting net zero emissions, inflation has gone through the roof in Australia. A big cause of the high inflation has been Australia's high energy prices.

Since signing up to net zero, electricity and gas prices have gone up by 40 per cent.

These price increases have occurred because Australia has shut down its reliable and cheap power stations, like coal, and installed more costly and intermittent renewable alternatives.

A recent report by the Page Research Centre shows that a new coal fired power station remains the cheapest form of electricity generation in Australia. Coal is 35 per cent cheaper than a renewable option backed by gas.

And while the government failed to talk about the cost of energy at their productivity roundtable even once, it is clear that skyrocketing power prices are the real productivity issue. Higher power costs mean everything we do across the economy becomes more expensive.

These higher energy costs are costing Australia its manufacturing industries. In just the three years since Australia signed up to net zero, we have lost our urea industry (the most important fertiliser), our plastics industry and our nickel industry.

These industries were heavy users of fossil fuels, and our net zero commitments are costing Australian jobs and vital industries.

For the first time since the early settlers, Australia cannot feed itself because we must now import fertiliser from China and the Middle East.

Thanks to Australia's high energy prices, we face the threat of losing over 8000 jobs in our smelters and refineries.

Over 10 smelters and refineries are right now asking for government support to stay open because they cannot pay the high (and ever-increasing) energy prices and remain viable.

Already, the Labor Government has announced a $2 billion subsidy for the Whyalla steelworks, a $2 billion fund for aluminium and a $7 billion fund for critical minerals.

At the same time, Labor's net zero carbon tax (the so-called Safeguard Mechanism) puts at least a $6 billion bill on these smelters and refineries to reach net zero. And this assumes the current carbon price of $36 per tonne. If carbon prices double (as many expect), the bill could be well over $10 billion.

So, on the one hand, we tax our manufacturing industry because of their high emissions and on the other we hand out taxpayer assistance to help pay the carbon tax bill!

Despite almost all countries agreeing to pursue net zero emissions at the Glasgow conference, global carbon emissions have continued to rise. Global annual carbon emissions have increased by 1.7 billion tonnes since net zero was adopted.

Since the Glasgow conference, China, India, Indonesia and Mongolia have all increased their annual coal mining output by 1.2 billion tonnes. That is more than double what Australia produces in a year.

The United States has now pulled out of the Paris agreement.

China, India and Indonesia did not sign up to the statement agreed at the last climate conference because it called on countries to limit coal investments.

China now produces more emissions in a fortnight than Australia does in a year.

The plan to reach net zero involves the installation of enormous amounts of wind and solar energy. Because wind and solar are much less dense forms of energy than coal, gas or nuclear, they take up much more land and thus have a bigger impact on our environment.

Compared to nuclear power, solar takes up 60 times more land, and wind around 300 times more land. Even coal-fired power has a smaller footprint than large scale onshore wind and solar.

A report by Net Zero Australia states that a land area of more than 120,000km[2] (or equivalent to half the size of the state of Victoria) would be needed for renewable energy. And, that another 50,000km[2], or 5 million hectares, of agricultural land would need to be reforested for carbon offsets.

All this, while our pristine rainforests are being cleared in the name of environmentalism to construct wind turbines and our prime agricultural land is blanketed with foreign-made solar panels.

Continuing to pursue this net zero lunacy is destroying rural and regional Australia. Regional communities and families are being torn apart so that we can have the most expensive electricity in the world.

The Australian people have been hoodwinked by a Labor government and a Prime Minister who promised a $275 cut to power bills. Who promised cheap electricity along with prosperity and jobs. We were going to become a green energy superpower—but instead these green projects are falling over (even with huge subsidies), and our critical minerals are not in demand because China and Indonesia use dirty mining techniques and slave labour—undercutting anything we manufacture.

We are destroying our own nation in the pursuit of reducing global emissions—an undertaking impossible and fanciful for a small nation the size of Australia.

Our government should be focussed on improving the lives of Australians, not appeasing international organisations overseas.

It's time we abandon this failing net zero experiment and start putting our nation, our economy and our people first again.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.