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

My question is to Minister Ayres, representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Minister, the Senate committee report on climate risk and insurance premiums, tabled a year ago, found that climate driven disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity, with insurance skyrocketing and becoming unaffordable and unavailable. The national climate risk assessment, which Labor tried to hide, has painted a very dire picture of the future, and just this week new reports are warning of increasing extreme weather and impacts on insurance. Communities are bearing the brunt of the cascading and compounding effects of cost of living, insurance and the climate crisis. Minister, when will your government respond to the recommendations in this report and actually do something for communities on the front lines of the climate crisis?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, Senator Faruqi, we hid the national climate risk assessment report by releasing it! We released it on the timetable determined by us because it was at the heart of this government determining a credible, deliverable achievable target for 2035.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Faruqi, first supplementary?

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

Minister, the polluter-pays principle demands that the cost of the climate crisis be shifted to those responsible for it. Fossil fuel corporations make a motza as they wreck the climate, while the community pays. When will your government force coal and gas companies to pick up the tab for the climate damage that they are causing and contribute to disaster mitigation, resilience and the cost of rising insurance?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a model that incorporated this principle, where firms that had a responsibility for pollution would make a contribution. It was there for this Senate to vote on in 2009, and I remember the Greens political party and this rabble over here voting it down and delaying energy action and investment for another two decades.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Faruqi, second supplementary?

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

Minister, you can try and evade these questions, but you know full well that coal and gas are killing the planet. Why are you fast-tracking coal and gas with your so-called environment reforms?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I say, if you've got politics focused on bumper stickers and slogans, it has consequences.