Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to a question without notice asked by Senator Di Natale today relating to climate change.

You would think that when the IMF says the risk of climate change is catastrophic, irreversible and rising, the government would take notice. Or when they say the costs may be infinite if we don't act now, you'd think the government would be listening. You'd think that when the IMF says the risk of human extinction is real, the government would listen. When the UN climate summit says that the targets we agreed to in Paris aren't going to do the job, that we need to lift our level of ambition and the targets need to increase by three to five times, you'd think that the government would listen. You'd think that when millions of people right across the world are marching saying that they want action —hundreds of thousands of them are marching here in Australia—the government would listen.

Sadly, the answer is the opposite. Instead of listening, what we get is fudging, deflection and lies. We heard that today in the response we got from the minister to my question about the climate targets we agreed to in Paris. Lie No. 1 was that we have a target of 26 to 28 per cent. No, we don't. We're using dodgy accounting with carryover credits. That means the real target is about 15 per cent. We need four, five or six times that number to give ourselves any chance of meeting those commitments. Lie No. 2 is that we are going to meet those targets. Well, we know that, based on the current trajectory, we have next to no chance of meeting those already weak and compromised targets the government has agreed to. Lie No. 3 is that there is a plan to deal with climate change. There is no plan. We have no energy policy. We have no climate policy. The business community are crying out because there is no certainty. So what we get is more lies, more fudging, more obfuscation and more deflection. Of course, one of the biggest lies of all is that if we somehow reorient our economy, that if we transition, it is going to carry a huge cost to society and deliver no benefits. But we know that the opposite is true.

The worst part of all of this is that the coal, oil and gas lobby, working hand in glove with the government, has sabotaged the incredible potential that we as a nation have to create jobs and investment and to ensure that there is a long-term future for people in communities that are at the front line of climate change. Instead the government has held back progress knowing all the while that the technologies needed to drive this change are right there at our fingertips. We know that, by increasing our level of ambition, we give ourselves a chance of turning around the breakdown of our climate that we are currently facing. Better still, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs there for the taking right across Australia. Many of them are regional jobs—jobs in renewables and storage, jobs that will attract manufacturing. That's what happens when you have those technologies bringing down energy prices. There will be jobs in biotech and the cultivation of biomass for chemical and pharmaceutical substitution. These are jobs that are being created right around the world right now. There will be jobs in local energy efficiency—retrofits across our housing and business stock. There will be jobs in agriculture—in restoring and improving the land rather than depleting it. There will be jobs in planting trees on marginal farmland—in restoring our ravaged and depleted landscapes. There will be hundreds of thousands of jobs if we get this transition right.

Instead we have a government that is intent on prosecuting campaigns from almost a decade ago. Today we had the minister stating clearly that there are no plans to introduce a carbon price. Remember the lie that was told at the time the carbon price was destroyed: an extra $550 in cheaper energy prices. We've seen nothing but the opposite. Energy prices are up and emissions are at record levels. We're about to see the renewable sector fall off an investment cliff. We've got businesses now showing the leadership so desperately lacking here in Canberra.

The good news is resistance is building. People across the world are taking action. Right now hundreds of thousands, indeed, millions of Australians are saying: 'Enough is enough. It's time that you acted. We're taking a stand.' (Time expired)

Question agreed to.