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

This is my first speech for the new 48th Parliament. I was reflecting on the first order of business for this government in the 47th Parliament, and my first reflections were on the setting of a climate target after more than ten years of coalition inaction on climate. I reflected on the fact that we, the Greens party, supported the government to legislate a 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030.

We knew this was inadequate. We knew it was less than our Paris agreements, but the community out there were so desperate to get some kind of action in this place on climate that we worked cooperatively and constructively with the government to pass that legislation. But there was a very explicit agreement that this would be the beginning of ambition on climate and emissions reductions and that the government would raise that ambition. Well, the time is now for a new set of climate targets. Indeed, under our Paris protocols, we were supposed to have provided these by February 2025. Because of the election, that has been delayed.

The Greens are calling on the government to implement the strongest possible climate targets. We have seen the Climate Council say we need a 75 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2035. We have seen the Queensland state government—a Labor government—come out with a target for 75 per cent emissions reduction by 2035. This is a critical decision for our nation. We worked constructively with the government in the previous parliament to get the ball rolling. Now is the time to up our ambition before, hopefully, a COP in this country next year where we can show the world that we have actually legislated emissions reductions in line with the science that tells us we need to limit warming to 1½ degrees to have a habitable planet for future generations. Nothing could be more important than new climate targets. (Time expired)