Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, would like to associate my comments with those of the others who have spoken before me as members of the committee on this report. I'm very pleased to support the tabling of the report and the recommendations that we have collectively come up with. I'd like to thank all of my Senate colleagues, but in particular the chair, Senator Whish-Wilson, and the deputy chair, Senator Ananda-Rajah, as well as the secretariat for, as Senator Pocock said, the tower of work that they did to support us while we worked through the thousands and thousands of pages of evidence to come up with what you see before you today.

As has been mentioned, we heard a lot of important evidence throughout the inquiry—a lot of it undermining community confidence in our important and necessary transition to a renewable future—about the impacts of mis- and disinformation, social media and the slopaganda that is circulating amongst us and our communities. We heard from very, very courageous communities, workers and organisations who highlighted the challenges in working to move to a renewable energy economy and supporting our community in the transition. We cannot afford to get this wrong. We cannot afford to get it wrong for our kids and for our future. I think this inquiry really highlighted some of the challenges that are before us and that will be before those who come after us as the world moves so quickly.

We also heard some excellent examples of how transition can be managed well in communities. I think about some evidence we heard from the Gippsland region in Victoria. We heard evidence from those who worked together, who engaged very early in the process, a long time before anything started to happen. We had organisations building trust with community, building trust with community organisations, working with local government and building confidence amongst those in the local area to really understand what was happening in their communities and why it was happening. They were expending important resources early so that people had absolute trust and were able to feel safe, to ask questions, to debate, to access reliable and credible information, to make their own decisions and to come up with conclusions that support a just transition for people in such a way that people can feel confident and able to speak their minds.

There is absolutely a debate that has to be had, but the debate has to be based on facts. It has to be based on people being able to trust where the information is coming from. It needs to be based on credible organisations and actors and transparency about who is behind what is being proposed, what is being said and who is funding such debate. So I really want to shout out those communities who have continued to engage in processes when it has been difficult and those organisations who have supported those communities. As I said, there is an important role that organisations like local government can also play in building trust and engendering transparency on what is going on as communities make a massive transition that will have lasting impacts on them for a long time to come. Some of the lessons, clearly, are around engaging early, building trust and credibility and the importance of our public institutions in that process.

That goes to the broader agenda of this government, which has received a mandate from the Australian people to continue to work on combating climate change, moving to a renewable energy future and making the energy system fairer. Since the Albanese government was elected in 2022, we have lifted our country's 2030 emissions reduction target by more than half, from 26 per cent to 43 per cent. Having the confidence of the community in a renewable energy transition process in the regions and all throughout our country is critical in enabling us to continue to meet that target.

Since returning to government, we have set our 2035 target of 62 to 70 per cent on 2005 emissions levels. In setting this target, we have accepted the Climate Change Authority's advice. To progress towards achieving our 2035 target, we have done a range of things to transition and progress, and I think this inquiry and this report also forms part of that work that must continue, along with things like establishing a new $5 billion Net Zero Fund in the National Reconstruction Fund to help industrial facilities decarbonise and scale up more renewables that can power communities and low-emissions manufacturing. We have invested $1.1 billion to encourage more production of clean fuels here in Australia. Those are just a few things that build on our achievements over the past three years.

Importantly, there is a large part of our community that accepts the need to transition, and the uptake of solar rooftop in our country is living proof of that. We have reduced the cost of typical home batteries to support that solar transition and to build on the success of Australians who have embraced that technology so well. And, of course, we've also put net zero in the objects of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Act to ensure that they keep this goal at front of mind when making decisions, and we have made it relevant to other key agencies, such as Infrastructure Australia and Export Finance Australia. All of these levers form part of what the fabric of this report is also about. Of course, more broadly, we've restored Australia's international climate leadership, restoring our credibility with the world, including the Pacific.

Emission projections confirm these policies have us on track to reach our 43 per cent 2030 emissions reduction target, but we know there's much more to do, and hopefully the recommendations in this report can continue to support the work that we need to do, because we absolutely cannot afford to go backwards. I would also urge, as Senator McLachlan did, that people who are interested in this read the report and, importantly, the recommendations that we've come up with to address the enormous challenges that have been highlighted by this inquiry.

In conclusion, I think the final thing that I would say is that I still feel fairly new to the Senate, even though I wasn't part of the class of 2025—the 48th Parliament—but I think I'm beginning to understand the importance of Senate inquiry work and the work that you can collectively do with colleagues across the aisle, from all parties, to come up with a report like this. I think we had our final meeting yesterday—was it just yesterday? Everybody in the room was reflecting on the work that was done and how proud we are to have achieved a report where we could agree on the recommendations. I think that is a Senate committee working at its best, when we can all keep our eye on the main objective that we're trying to achieve here.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.