Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter from Senator McKim:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today the Australian Greens propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

With Antarctic sea ice the size of Western Australia missing this winter, the hottest global month ever recorded, extreme fires and heatwaves across the northern hemisphere and record Atlantic Ocean temperatures, the United Nations Secretary-General has declared that the world is boiling. The urgency of this escalating crisis requires urgent and profound action from all global leaders, including Australia's Labor Government that must commit to no new coal and gas and an immediate end to native forest logging."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in accordance with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator McKim, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

With Antarctic sea ice the size of Western Australia missing this winter, the hottest global month ever recorded, extreme fires and heatwaves across the northern hemisphere and record Atlantic Ocean temperatures, the United Nations Secretary-General has declared that the world is boiling. The urgency of this escalating crisis requires urgent and profound action from all global leaders, including Australia's Labor Government that must commit to no new coal and gas and an immediate end to native forest logging.

I rise to share the sentiments that so many people in Australia and around the world are feeling, a dreadful fear—fear about the climate crisis we are in: the fires, the extreme heat, the droughts, the floods which worsen every single year. The globe isn't just warming up anymore; it is cooking. We are in the era of global boiling, and, yes, it is as terrifying as it sounds. With Antarctic ice the size of Western Australia missing this winter, July being the hottest month ever recorded, extreme fires and heatwaves ravaging the northern hemisphere and record Atlantic Ocean temperatures, the unambiguously apocalyptic climate warnings that scientists, the United Nations and the other experts and agencies have been sounding are actually being realised. There is also anger—a deep anger—at this government's arrogance and refusal to take the urgent and profound action needed in the midst of this absolute emergency. People are crying out for urgent action, for us to do so much better as a country on climate, to lead the world in climate action and to fight with everything that we've got to give our planet and our children the chance of a livable future that they so deserve.

Coal and gas are fuelling this extreme climate crisis, and Australia is one of the biggest exporters of fossil fuels. While the globe boils, what is Labor doing? It's turning up the temperature by opening new coal and gas. They are making it worse, with the Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, giving the tick of approval to three climate bombs just this year. That's right—Labor aren't just letting us careless coast along towards climate collapse. No, they are actively driving us there. If this insatiable appetite to dig up coal and gas continues, there are predictions that our planet could catastrophically warm but 1.5 degrees as early as 2027—that's just four years away—bringing on the irreversible collapse of ecosystems. What we are seeing in the northern hemisphere now will hit Australia this summer.

Why is Labor wilfully ignoring all the signs, the code reds, the flashing lights and the blaring sirens? Is it just a lack of courage stopping them from taking the profound action that is needed? Unfortunately, it is worse than just a lack of foresight or courage. It's much more sinister. Labor know full well the inadequacy of their responses, but they are so beholden to the climate wrecking, morally bankrupt fossil fuel corporations who fill their pockets with dirty donations that they don't care. The Labor Party are held to ransom by their buddies in big coal and gas—companies who, by the way, pay next to no tax and are using oppressive SLAPP suits to silence activists alerting us to the climate emergency. They would rather the planet boil than stand up to these companies and risk their own coffers.

Australia's coal and gas are causing climate disasters everywhere. It is our neighbours in the Pacific and indigenous people and people of colour in the global south who are on the front line and who will be most harmed by the climate crisis, but they have contributed the least to global emissions. They have been sounding the alarm at every international forum for decades, and yet leaders of rich countries like Australia and the global north have ignored their pleas for climate justice. I have just returned from Pakistan after seeing my ammi. Australia's criminal inaction on climate is deeply felt there—felt in the extreme heat, felt in the melting glaciers washing away entire villages and felt in the everyday life of children in Pakistan who are suffocating in an ever deadly mix of intense heat and trapped pollution.

We must also remember to lift our gaze. We must start a process of making climate reparations to the global south countries who are most harmed by Australia's contribution to the climate crisis. This is not charity but compensation for harms that Australia continues to directly cause and Australia now has an opportunity to redress. It is time to take real action on climate. Labor must commit to an immediate end to native forest logging. The Prime Minister and Labor must stop approving new coal and gas projects and push the world to do the same. That is the kind of leadership we demand from Australia.

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

I have never heard a greater spray or screed of double standards in this place. I was not going to raise the Pakistan issue, but since Senator Faruqi has she might be interested to know—and I don't know if this came up in discussions over there on the subcontinent—that in February, less than six months ago, under a headline from Reuters it was reported that Pakistan plans to quadruple domestic coal-fired power and move away from gas. But she has the temerity to come into this place and blame this country for this climate crisis while failing to mention—and I'm sure she would know—that Pakistan is turning on more coal-fired power stations just as they're going out of fashion. How about we apply an equal standard here? Why are the Greens so quick to damn Australia, our country and our people, but are so quick to let others off the hook, whether it is Pakistan, China, India or Europe—and I'll come to Europe later.

The other broader double standard in this contribution today is that every time it's cold we are told the weather is not climate, and then as soon as it is hot in Rome apparently the weather is climate. What a double standard. Do the Greens remember May? Only a few months ago in May—and I am quoting from a report—more than 100 weather stations across Australia registered their coldest May minimum temperatures on record. I'm not saying that is climate, but you are. You are saying that because it is a bit hot in Europe at the moment it's global boiling, which is apparently the term now. Global warming is no longer useful, so they have come up with a new term to replace the old term to scare us even more. But they are just using weather, using data points, to justify putting a massive new restriction on our own economic restrictions while they are ignoring the data from our own country, which shows we just had one of the coldest Mays on record.

Why do you ignore that? It does not make any sense because what is actually happening around the world, not just in Pakistan—a news flash for the Greens—is the world is increasing its use of coal. But that's not the case in Australia. We are getting blamed. The Greens constantly blame us. They want to blame their own country and their own people, yet they ignore—

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Where are they getting the coal from, you goose?

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

It's not from Australia—I'll take that interjection from Senator Whish-Wilson because Australia's coal production actually fell by three per cent in the past year, whereas in China it's up six per cent and in India it's up eight per cent. Europe has increased its coal production by one per cent over the last year. Our use has actually declined. If the Greens looked at the data, they would actually see that Australia is not contributing to this issue, it's the other countries that they refuse to condemn. As the International Energy Agency reported last week:

As projected in the Coal 2022 report last December, global coal demand reached a new all-time high in 2022, rising above 8.3 billion tonnes …

Australia's production actually fell by three per cent, but this new record was reached because other countries—China, Indonesia, India—are increasing their production of coal. Even Europe are increasing their reliance on coal.

It should be stated, to get the facts right here, the world uses 8,300 million tonnes of coal a year. Although it has declined a little bit, Australia's production is 450 million tonnes of the 8,300 million, so it's about 5½ per cent. We produce about 5½ per cent of the world's coal, so we're not the cause of all of these issues. And even if we were to completely shut down the coal industry here, as the Greens would want to do, it would make no difference to the climate at all. It would make no difference to the climate at all because China, India and other countries would continue to mine their own coal. They would easily be able to increase their production to replace our coal.

So, what is this actually about? It's not really about the climate. It's not about that at all. They simply want to deindustrialise Western countries. That is the agenda here. They're letting all the other countries off the hook. You never hear speeches about Xi Jinping and his policy to build two coal-fired power stations a week. There's never any condemnation of that. There's never any condemnation of India's plans to expand their coal production to over 1,000 million tonnes per year. They've achieved those plans; they achieved them in the past year. There's never any condemnation of that. There's never any condemnation of Pakistan and their plans to quadruple the coal-fired power stations in their country. If they really cared about the climate, they'd be mentioning those things as well.

What the Greens really care about is shutting down industry in Australia and shifting and redistributing that wealth to other countries. That is the agenda here, as plain as day given the double standards that are constantly espoused by those in that corner.

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

So here we are again with our three-cornered conversation around climate, energy and the future of Australia. I don't think it's going to surprise anyone in here when I advise you that Labor will not be supporting this motion. We will not be supporting a motion that has a blanket moratorium. Rather, we will be transitioning Australia to a clean, sustainable energy future because the extremities of all and the extremities of nothing are not going to give us a strong economy, a safe country and an opportunity to do everything that we can to transition to that.

Rather than pointing fingers at what everybody else might have done, I thought I would just take the opportunity, given the debates we've had so far on this today, to talk about what we have done in 12 months and where we think that's going to take us.

We do know that natural disasters are increasingly frequent and increasingly unnatural. How many times have you heard somebody say, 'Oh, that's our second 100-year flood in 10 years.' Times have changed. These 100-year floods, 100-year fires, that's not how it's moving anymore. Things are changing. It is a crisis; we need to take action. Obviously, there is a lot of disagreement about what that action should look like, but we will take action, and we have taken significant action in the 14 months that Labor have been in government.

Our major focus, coming into government, was to lock in a policy environment that was going to drive our climate and energy priorities, which we've been really clear about for a number of years. We wanted to create policy certainty for business and to encourage investment, because the kind of change we're looking at is going to take everybody pulling in the same direction and putting ourselves out there as an investment certainty, as a good opportunity for investment, which helps drive that development quicker. It helps drive that process towards a more renewable energy base quicker. Then we went about rebuilding relationships internationally and with our states so that we could actually get that connectivity that we've heard some talk about already in terms of, internationally, who's doing what to who, when and how. I will make a point of saying I think that the commentary about us being responsible for a country who's got much more robust action going on—in a negative sense—is out of line. We went about the negotiation with the states and the rebuilding of the relationship with the states, so that we could then get traction on those issues that are shared responsibilities or connected responsibilities, and we have seen the fruits of that hard work from Minister Bowen.

We set our emissions reduction target of 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050. We committed to 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030. We have given the safeguard mechanism teeth so that the biggest emitters will need a net emissions reduction of almost five per cent per year every year. We had the Chubb review to verify the carbon credits and make some changes. We've got emissions reductions finally in the national energy objectives so that our regulators and our operators are actually using that as a baseline for decision-making and for setting the rules in our energy market. We've got the Climate Change Authority back to play a real and meaningful role. We've put net zero in the objectives of the CEFC and the ARENA Act and made it relevant to other key agencies that are playing in this space, namely Infrastructure Australia and Export Finance Australia. We are upgrading and expanding our power grid, with $20 billion in Rewiring the Nation to increase the grid's security and to drive down power prices and unlock new renewables. We've finalised the law for offshore wind. We have released our National Electric Vehicle Strategy, which comes with fuel efficiency standards and electrical vehicle discounts that, we've seen, actually work. We're seeing movement. We are seeing significant changes. There is not enough time in the five minutes I've been given to list all the things that we have done, but we are working so hard to make sure that Australia has a sustainable clean energy future.

David Pocock (ACT, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

We face a terrifying outlook when it comes to climate. We've seen Antarctic sea ice the size of Western Australia missing this winter. We've seen the hottest global month ever recorded, extreme fires and heatwaves across the Northern Hemisphere, and record Atlantic Ocean temperatures. The UN Secretary-General has declared that the world is boiling. The urgency of this escalating crisis requires urgent and profound action from all global leaders, including Australia's Labor government, which must commit to no new coal and gas and an immediate end to native forest logging. I commend this motion from the Greens.

Twenty-one of the 30 hottest days ever recorded occurred this month. This year, 2023, will likely be the hottest year in history by a considerable margin. The coming El Nino system is likely to push temperatures even higher and may make 2023 or 2024 the warmest year yet recorded. We're seeing the result of inaction. It is horrifying. We have to listen to scientists. We have a government that says that they accept the signs; they just won't listen to scientists. They've been clear. They won't even listen to the International Energy Agency. Apparently, their plan is better. Their plan includes fracking the Beetaloo, opening up so many big gas projects—Scarborough, Barossa, Pluto; it's a long, long list—as well as approving the extension of coal in 2023.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

Ninety per cent of global warming—or, as the UN Secretary-General now describes it, global boiling—is stored in our oceans. With an unprecedented heatwave in our Northern Hemisphere still unfolding, with records being broken every day, with July set to break the record for the warmest month in human history, an unprecedented 44 per cent of our global ocean is experiencing marine heatwaves right now, compared to an average of 10 per cent. They are the warmest ocean temperatures ever recorded in the North Atlantic, and the same in the Mediterranean. Officially the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded anywhere on the planet was off the coast of Florida last week, at 38 degrees Celsius—warm as a hot bath. Our oceans, reefs and corals that support a quarter of our earth's marine biodiversity are in danger. Our own global natural wonder, the Great Barrier Reef, also recorded its own marine heatwave warning for the end of June, over one million square kilometres of the Great Barrier Reef, for 2,000 kilometres—above average. That is worrying considering it's not even summer yet, with an El Nino summer almost certain to come. Coral bleaching poses the single biggest existential threat to reefs and marine biodiversity around the world.

With such global boiling occurring on land and sea, this will impact ice levels on our planet. Disappearing ice in the Arctic has long been a source of concern; now it's also one in the Antarctic. An unprecedented ice mass, compared to previous years, the size of Western Australia, or Mexico, is missing off Antarctica. Scientists are baffled at the size of the change. To use their own word, they are 'gobsmacked'. It is estimated this once-in-7.5-million-years event is almost certainly due to global warming. Loss of sea ice can accelerate ocean warming, alter ocean currents globally and ultimately raise sea levels, and will have significant biodiversity impacts on krill and other marine creatures.

At such a time in human history, where we are likely facing a climate tipping point, can you believe the Australian Antarctic Division, which does our critical scientific work in the great barometer of the world's weather and climate, is facing budget cuts. We learned last week the Australian Antarctic Division has to cut its operating budget by 16 per cent to find $25 million in savings. We have heard from many sources that many scientific programs planned for this summer, including studies of sea ice, have been canned because of this budget cut. How did this happen? There has never been a worse time for our globally significant and critical Antarctic science division to be facing such cuts. This government needs to commit, especially at such a critical juncture, to prioritising Antarctic science programs. That will be critical to understanding the pace of change we are seeing in the climate and what we can do about it.

Most importantly, the government needs to stop approving new coal and gas mines. Three coalmines in 53 days—that's Labor's current response to this accelerating climate crisis. I noted last week that, when this new data came out about Antarctic sea ice, there was not a word from the Prime Minister or any minister in this government. It's simply criminal to ignore the climate breakdown we are seeing around us and continue to pour petrol on the fire.

In my last 16 seconds: I'm an optimistic guy, but I really hope Senator Canavan might have opened his eyes and taken his head out of his arse and noticed that this planet is changing.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Whish-Wilson, I ask you to withdraw that reflection on Senator Canavan.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw the word 'arse'.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

You should withdraw unconditionally.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) | Link to this | Hansard source

In the first part of this year, I have spent a lot of time with Australians hearing how they have dealt with natural disasters. I've had this privilege because I am chairing the disaster resilience committee. Unlike a lot of inquiries in this place, this one looks forward, not back. We know extreme climate events are getting worse and what everyday families are having to cope with is just plain awful, from what we are hearing.

Between the floods and the fires, the message I've been getting is loud and clear: without the Australian Defence Force being called in, we are in a great world of hurt—and that is without them being in a place of war. Right now, we are very privileged to be able to use them. But I've got a problem: the ADF is already stretched. What happens when they aren't here? Our SES and firies are also massively stretched. They're getting older, and the generation down, like me, are not signing up to volunteer. Everyone from the UN to the top investment managers are saying we need to be on a war footing to cope with the extreme weather events. I can assure you that something needs to be done. I'm calling for volunteers.

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

This July has been the hottest global month ever recorded. The climate crisis is happening now. Antarctic sea ice the size of Western Australia has gone missing this winter. The Northern Hemisphere in July saw extreme fires and heatwaves and record Atlantic Ocean temperatures. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, says that we've left the era of global warming and we've entered the era of global boiling. He's called for dramatic, immediate climate action. He's previously called for developed countries like Australia to get out of coal, oil and gas. The time to act if we're going to keep global heating below catastrophic levels must be now. Yet, the Albanese government continues to approve new fossil fuel projects, putting our climate and our environment and our very humanity at risk.

Environment assets include the Great Barrier Reef, which is one of the seven Natural Wonders of the World and supports countless, miraculous species of creatures and corals and plants and provides a livelihood for 60,000 workers in my home state of Queensland and a revenue pre-COVID of almost $6 billion a year. Recurrent bleaching as a result of the climate crisis has already changed global reefs forever. More than half the coral cover of the Great Barrier Reef has been permanently lost in successive mass coral bleaching since 2015. Because of that bleaching, and the mass industrialisation of the reef with export ports to ship out yet more coal and gas to the world, the world heritage committee put the reef on the watch list for endanger listing, and the time for our country's homework to be re-marked by the committee is nigh. It could even happen as early as tonight.

Professor Terry Hughes tweeted today: 'The Prime Minister has rejected any moratorium on new coal and gas plants. Minister Plibersek has already approved three new coal mines in two months. Does UNESCO seriously think Australia is doing all it can to safeguard the great barrier reef's world heritage values?' With the Albanese government continuing to expand fossil fuels, it's hard to imagine how an endangered listing for our Great Barrier Reef can be avoided again. Then again, maybe Australia can bribe our way out of such a listing like we did last time with the global lobbying effort, more effort than was spent on actually addressing the climate crisis.

That's three coalmines in two months. Meanwhile, in a totally unrelated coincidence, fossil fuel companies have donated $2 million to the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the National Party in just the last financial year. We need to ban fossil fuel donations. We need to make sure that coal and gas projects are made based on the science and not political interests. There can be no new coal and gas. None of those 114 coal and gas projects can proceed if we are to have any hope of staying within liveable parameters.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKim for his matter of urgency. The public is waking up to the net zero war on living standards, war on freedom of movement and war on property rights. Following public sentiment moving away from global warming ideology, the media is seeking to restore its credibility on this. So what's a climate carpet bagger like UN head Antonio Guterres got to do? Does he admit the scam is over and resign? No. He dialled up the hyperbole from global warming to global boiling. This hyperbole is dangerous. It's based on falsification of data. It's scaring children into thinking they have no future. It's destroying wealth and property. It's taking away basic human rights like the right to travel and the right to enjoy one's own property. The warmers are desperate to save their scare from the reality of cooling temperatures and the demonstrated failure of wind and solar to provide baseload power, while driving skyrocketing unaffordable power prices, crippling families. In tomorrow's adjournment speech, I'll be saying a lot more.

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

This planet has just experienced the three hottest days on record. This month, July, will be the hottest month on record. The Antarctic ice sheet is 15 per cent smaller than it should be. An area the size of Mexico or Western Australia has failed to freeze this winter. There are record north Atlantic Ocean temperatures that the actual Gulf Stream is flickering; it's turning on and off. Wildfires are ripping through southern Europe as we speak. The planet is literally cooking. We are living through the early days of the climate catastrophe, and the feedback loops are kicking in.

I'm usually an optimistic person, but I just want to say—

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

You hide it well.

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

Mate, you can shut your mouth.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim!

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

You can shut your mouth.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim! Senator McKim, resume your seat.

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

People are dying because of you and sociopaths like you.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, resume your seat.

Senator McKim! Order. I have a number of senators on their feet. I don't really need you to be on your feet for me to say that you—

Senator Canavan! Senator McKim! Order! This is disgraceful behaviour in the chamber. It is disgraceful. Now, Senator McKim, I ask you to withdraw your comments about Senator Canavan and resume your speech, and, Senator Canavan, I ask that you cease interjecting across the chamber. Senator McKim.

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

I withdraw, and I'm not going to cop interjections from sociopaths like Senator Canavan. I will not cop it and I won't—

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, resume your seat. Senator McKenzie.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order. I would just ask Senator McKim to withdraw that very unparliamentary reflection on another senator.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, I asked you to withdraw, and I ask you again to withdraw and just continue your comments through me, the chair.

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

I will withdraw, and I will say—through you, Chair—that the sociopaths who run fossil fuel corporations on this planet who are literally destroying the lives and the futures of billions of people and their sociopathic agents in this chamber and in the other place in this parliament have got a lot to answer for. And what they've got to answer for is death, disease, displacement, starvation, people dying of thirst, arable farming lands turning into desert and, most likely, billions of people dead by the end of this century and the collapse of the ecosystems that actually support all human life on this planet. That's what people like Senator Canavan have got to answer for. He can sit there and smirk and laugh about it as much as he likes, but history will regard what he has said and done in this place as an utter disgrace.

This paradisical planet! This beautiful, beautiful planet! This complex, awesome web of life is dying. It's dying. What is it going to take for people like him, for people like the Labor Party, for people like the opposition in this place to act? How many people are going to have to die before you will divorce yourselves from the sociopaths running fossil fuel and forestry corporations?

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McKim.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Order in the chamber! Order! I call Senator Shoebridge.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

We are living through the opening scenes of a disaster movie right now: the hottest month ever recorded, global ocean currents collapsing, Antarctic sea ice missing, fires across Europe and North America. And the villains are there too: the billionaires accumulating ever more wealth, no matter the human and environmental costs; the politicians saying we can't afford climate action, while shovelling public money at rapacious fossil fuel companies; the media outlets telling people that climate solutions include getting used to the heat. In the context of global boiling, no new coal and gas is the essential first step. When the situation is this bad, not making it worse is hardly bloody radical; it's the bare minimum.

Our children can't afford the cost of another dirty coalmine or another stinking gas field. They can't afford the greed of fossil fuel corporations. They can't afford a weak government. No new coal. No new gas.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Faruqi, at the request of Senator McKim, be agreed to.