Senator McKim has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today. It is shown at item 15 on today's Order of Business:

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

The need for the Labor government to stop approving coal and gas projects in the middle of a climate crisis, with their 37th coal and gas project approved as a climate disaster unfolds in Nepal and Tibet.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

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

It being supported, with the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

I move:

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

The need for the Labor government to stop approving coal and gas projects in the middle of a climate crisis, with their 37th coal and gas project approved as a climate disaster unfolds in Nepal and Tibet.

The world watched in horror as a wall of ice, rock and water tore through the Himalayas—more than a thousand people confirmed dead, thousands more still missing, whole villages erased. A glacier collapsed because the planet is heating, and the planet is heating because of the burning of coal and gas.

Nepal's foreign minister put it plainly this week—Nepal's share of global emissions is less than a tenth of one per cent. Then he asked the question that every wealthy, polluting country now has to answer: 'How fair is it for the Nepali people and people of the Himalayas to bear the burden of climate change, where we've had very little contribution to it?' How fair is it? It's not fair. It's obscene, and Australia, one of the biggest fossil fuel exporters on the planet, is helping to cause it.

When the Prime Minister was asked about climate change and this disaster, what did he say? He said, 'Now is not the time for that debate.' Well, tell that to the families digging through the mud to find their children. If not now, when? After the next glacier? After the next town is swept away? This is what 30 years of kicking the can down the road looks like. The harm is now impossible to ignore, and still the polluters keep profiting and shovelling the risk onto ordinary people, and this Labor government is a willing accomplice.

While the Prime Minister was in the Pacific, talking up Australia's climate credentials, his minister for resources was cutting the ribbon on the Beetaloo basin gas fracking project, and, days later, they waved through yet another coal mining expansion in Queensland—the 37th new fossil fuel project approved by Labor. Pacific leaders have called out that hypocrisy to our faces. Every one of those approvals is a choice: fossil fuel profits over the survival of those nations.

And it's coming for us too. The United Nations warned last week that the coming El Nino is expected to be the strongest since records began. We are six days out of winter, and, in my home state of Queensland, there are fires burning in the Lockyer Valley and you wake up to bushfire warnings on the morning radio. Flying into Canberra last night I watched the smoke and the red glow of bushfires from the plane—six days out of winter.

The UN's climate agency says the world is in a danger zone of extreme weather and that we are on track to blow through 1½ degrees. For Australia, that means more bushfires, more floods, more cyclones, more heatwaves, more homes lost, more lives lost, and more wildlife, more reef and more country gone for good. The climate crisis is not coming. It is here. It is destroying nature now. It is killing people now. And it is driven by pollution from coal and gas. Every new approval this government signs has a body count. It looks like floodwaters raging through the Himalayas. It looks like Black Saturday. It looks like 35,000 heat deaths across Europe.

This is not some impossible problem. Keep the goddamn coal and gas in the ground. Stop letting your donors—Woodside, Tamboran, Adani—buy you off with donations and jobs for when you leave parliament. Stop working for their corporate interests while you're in here. People are dying. The planet is on fire, and this government keeps pouring fuel on it. The government could stop it now, so do it. Stop approving coal and gas.

Once again, I'd like to emphasise, to our wonderful Nepalese Australian community, that this parliament stands in solidarity with you. Our Nepalese Australian community is one of our fastest-growing diaspora communities, and we see the wonderful contribution they make through the work they do in professions, in businesses, in small businesses and in our health sector. In every aspect of our community we see the contribution that is made by our Nepalese Australian community. In that respect, I also want to note that I've attended a number of events with our Nepalese Australian community. They've opened up their festivals to all Australians, including in my home state of Queensland. I'm sure Senator Waters would agree with respect to that matter.

To be open, I don't feel comfortable debating an issue such as this urgency motion at this point in time. That's my own personal position. I think the focus needs to be on providing our support, our solidarity with our Nepalese Australian community. I understand and appreciate that the Greens have a different perspective, but from my perspective it should be all about working out what we can do to support that community. In that regard, I congratulate the government with respect to the support it's provided to date in response to the disaster. I also note that members of the Nepalese community have contacted me and have provided their desire to contribute to the relief efforts occurring in Nepal. I think one thing the government could consider in the medium to longer term as Australia continues to provide its support to the Nepalese Australian community is how we can use the human bridge between our Nepalese Australian community and the people of Nepal to provide assistance to Nepal in the medium to long term. And I advocate for that assistance to be provided in the medium to long term.

In that regard, I welcome the fact that Angus Taylor, the opposition leader, has provided his support for measures the government undertakes to support the Nepalese Australian community and to support Nepal as it goes through the rebuilding and restructuring process. We're still in the phase of trying to rescue everyone who's able to be rescued. Again, I provide my compliments and support to those engaged in the rescue activities, including many Australians. It is extraordinarily heartwarming and inspiring to see the efforts that are occurring on the ground. Every day, including just yesterday, we hear of new survivors being rescued so many days after these catastrophic events, and that is heartwarming.

I want to provide my solidarity to the Nepalese Australian community. I want to provide my support to those engaged in the rescue and relief efforts. And I want to advocate for the Australian government, whoever's in government—it doesn't matter—to commit whatever supports are necessary in the short term in support of the rescue efforts and the relief efforts but also to commit the assistance Nepal will need in the medium to long term as it seeks to rebuild after this catastrophe. The government has the support of the opposition and the opposition leader.

One of the reasons for that is the wonderful contribution that is made by our Nepalese Australian community. We see it every day. They are part of the Australian story and will always be part of the Australian story. At this very difficult time, they should know that the Australian people have their arms wrapped around our Nepalese Australian community in solidarity and support. I once again thank those leaders of the Nepalese Australian community who are providing such great leadership, even at a time when they're going through their own personal pain.

What has occurred in Nepal is catastrophic, and the scenes that we see on our television sets in the evening are horrific. I express my condolences to the people of Nepal, Tibet and China as well as the families of Australians impacted by this incredibly confronting natural disaster. Thousands of residents, visitors and pilgrims are missing, and there are at least 36 Australians among them. Our thoughts are with their families. I can't imagine the agony that family and friends feel at the moment with missing loved ones or knowing that loved ones have been seriously injured or killed. Today is a national day of mourning in Nepal, and we join in that mourning for those who've suffered as a consequence of this disaster.

The situation on the ground is incredibly difficult, and the road to recovery is going to be long and challenging. I am very proud of what Australia is doing to assist in that, and I commend all those involved in the efforts, not only from around the world but also from Australia, who are on the ground right now. Almost 50 Australian officers have been deployed to the region to support search and rescue efforts; specialist Australian drone operators are in Nepal now, using rapid mapping and imaging technology to support searches; and the AFP's disaster victim identification specialist unit are also on the ground to assist. The Australian government has committed $11 million in humanitarian assistance, and a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 has delivered almost 24 tonnes of humanitarian aid to date.

I would echo the comments of Senator Scarr in terms of the role Australia has to play in this and the bipartisan and indeed multipartisan efforts needed to support people in our region when they're faced with disasters. I think that's not only an instrumentally good thing to do as a neighbour but also a moral obligation, and it's one that Australia has always taken very seriously and continues to take seriously today. I also share some of the discomfort raised by Senator Scarr about the bringing on of this motion in this way today. There is no doubt that the causes of this disaster will become more evident, and I think we can all accept as a starting point that climate change is making natural disasters worse and more frequent. But I think that trying to link these two things in this kind of motion is not really appropriate at this point in time. It really is an attempt to score political points in the midst of a tragedy, and I think that is disgraceful. If you want to have a debate about how climate policy is unfolding in this country and whether the speed of that transition is fast enough or too fast, I think that's an appropriate thing to do.

What I would also say is that I'm proud of the Albanese government's efforts in terms of taking strong action on climate change. There's a commitment to changing the entire Australian energy system. There's a commitment to net zero, and that commitment has been backed up by real policies that are seeing real action now. Climate change is real, acting is important and this government has taken significant action to bring down emissions. The latest quarterly update of Australia's national greenhouse gas inventory shows a 7.5 million tonne drop in emissions over the year to March 2026. The same report shows coal fired power in the national electricity market is down four per cent, gas is down 17 per cent and renewables are up by 13 per cent. Compared to 2005, emissions in Australia are down 25 per cent, and the government has committed the country and is moving the country towards a significantly reduced emissions profile as we transition to net zero.

We've had a number of these motions in this place, and we've debated it a number of times. This transition is one that is also going to be facilitated by the use of gas as a firming fuel. There are lots of different ways on lots of different models you can move to a complete transition to net zero and move to a clean energy grid. One of them, the one that the government has begun to implement, is to transition as much of the grid onto renewables as is possible and to have that firmed up by gas generation. That means that gas is still going to have a role as the electricity system moves towards 82 per cent renewables in the short term, because gas generation can be used rapidly, turned on and turned off when required, to support grid reliability. It's an important part of how we achieve that, not just as grid-firming and back-up but also as system stability, because intermittents are exactly as they say. They're not always certain, and gas turbines provide crucial system support to stabilise grids as more variable renewables are integrated.

I think this motion is misguided, but I'm proud of the government on actions both on Nepal and on climate change. (Time expired)

Obviously, scientists will take time to look at exactly what happened in Nepal, and we should not get ahead of them, but we do know that there are tipping points, and I fear that we are starting to see some of these tipping points in the news. Just as climate scientists are warning us about this future that we are beginning to live, the Albanese government is going down a different path. They are continuing to approve extensions of projects at an extraordinary scale, at a time when we know that we have more than enough for the transition and when the International Energy Agency and others have been very clear that, if we are to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, we cannot continue to expand the coal and gas industry. We should use what we have for the transition and get serious about that transition, doing it in a way that actually improves the lives of Australians, that reduces energy prices, that increases resilience in communities, that looks at both mitigation but also as adaptation. Adaptation is something that is sorely missing in terms of focus from both of the major parties.

It's no wonder that the Albanese Labor government continues to hide the Office of National Intelligence's climate and security risk assessment. They don't want anyone to know just how bad their assessment is for the Pacific, for our neighbours and for our region, and what that will mean when we start to see cascading climate fuelled disasters and just how hard it is going to be to keep pace with that. (Time expired)

We are in the teeth of a climate emergency. In Australia, we're all too familiar with fires and floods. In fact, I think these have become dangerously normalised. What we witnessed in Nepal was something else altogether. This was an apocalyptic event. It was much more than the floods that we're familiar with here in Australia. I think this was not just a glacial collapse, but it was the liquefaction of a mountain. This is what happens to mountains in a warming world. If this was a wake-up call, it was a wake-up call in the worst possible way, but it was followed soon after by another wake-up call, and that was the UN report. The UN have clearly stated now that we are on track to breach 1½ degrees, and we are heading towards a world of 2.6 degrees. That is an unliveable planet.

But I take heart from one thing and I take heart from history. Back in 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed, the world was on track to hit four degrees. In fact, we've managed to shave over one degree from that target. We're not going to reach four degrees at all. In fact, I think it'll be far less than that. So nothing is preordained when it comes to climate progress. In fact, what this emphasises to me is that we need to double down, redouble our efforts, when it comes to climate action.

As a federal government, I will use this urgency motion to talk about our climate action because I think it is fine to stand in solidarity with the people of Nepal and provide emergency assistance, which is what we are doing now. But I think it behoves us to also talk about what we are doing as a federal government on climate action, and I'm very happy to speak about our track record. In 2022 we were the first government in Commonwealth history to legislate the Climate Change Act, and that was done in collaboration with the Greens political party. What it did was drive a stake into the ground. We ran up our colours on that mast and we said that we mean business. Australia is open for business but we mean business. We are committed to net zero by 2050.

So while Senator Scarr had absolutely heartfelt sentiments towards the Nepalese people, what we really lack from those opposite in the coalition is a commitment to net zero. In fact, they've walked away from that commitment, and what message does that send to poor countries that do not have the means to actually drive climate action? These are not the people who are responsible for the climate crisis but they are the ones most at risk.

From our perspective, we have seen real progress in climate action in this country. When we first came to government in 2022, we had 33 per cent renewable energy in our main grid. We now have 51 per cent renewable energy. We are also using less gas. In 2021-22, we used 2.7 terawatts of gas. In 2025-26, we have dropped that down to 1.5 terawatts of gas. So as more renewables enter the grid, our gas usage falls, and this has largely been driven by Aussie households. They have taken up rooftop solar in droves. Over 500,000 home batteries have been deployed through households throughout this country, and electric vehicle sales are surging. They are booming. When we first came to government, EV sales were at two per cent. They are now at 50 per cent. If you told me that four years ago, I would have said 'you are crazy' and 'you are joking'. We have backed this in with an additional $40 million towards building out kerbside infrastructure so that people can charge their cars from poles that also supply light. But this is not all we're doing.

We realise that we need to have alternatives to petrol and diesel and that is why we have committed $1.1 billion towards developing low-carbon fuels, things like biodiesel, sustainable aviation fuels and e-fuels that come from the produce, the feedstock, in our regions—sorghum, canola, sugar cane, bio waste like tallow. Right now we export $4 billion in feedstock like canola to places like Europe, where it is then returned to us as biofuel. We believe that that market will be in the order of $40 billion by 2050 if we can get this going. So you can see how climate policy is also industrial policy in this country. (Time expired)

The tragedy in Nepal is a climate warning written in death and destruction. Of course, the people of Nepal, who are paying such an unbearable price for that tragedy, committed almost none of the emissions that have caused it. Here in Australia, a prime minister, whose government is approving coal and gas projects just as fast as it possibly can, says 'now is not the time' to talk about climate change. So when does the Prime Minister think it is okay to talk about climate change? When the eastern seaboard of Australia is on fire again, destroying communities and ecosystems, when Brisbane and Lismore are under water again, can we talk about climate change then? When another Australian community is wiped off the map, is that enough time or an appropriate time, according to the PM, to talk about climate change? When Labor approves another coal or gas mine, are we allowed to talk about climate change then? Labor know exactly what opening new coal and gas projects is doing to our climate, but they approve them anyway. At some stage, when politicians knowingly fuel a crisis that has killed thousands of people just in the last couple of weeks, they have to be called what they are: climate criminals with blood on their hands.

Today, Senator Wong accuses the Australian Greens of playing politics by raising these issues. Of course, climate change is political. Opening new coal and gas mines and approving them as fast as you can is political. A Labor minister opening the Beetaloo Basin carbon bomb with a goofy smile on her face, which happened last week, is political. Labor members leaving politics to take board positions and consulting gigs with the corporations who are cooking this planet is political. Ignoring climate science so your mates at Santos and Woodside can make more obscene profits for longer is political. These climate disasters do not arrive through some mysterious force beyond human control. They are being driven by decisions made by governments and made by corporations. Climate change is political. What Senator Wong wants is the right to express sorrow for victims while demanding silence about the decisions that killed them. We're not going to have a bar of it. (Time expired)

Ten days ago, a glacier collapsed over the Nepal and Tibet border. Within minutes, walls of water swept away villages, bridges and hydropower tunnels. More than 1,350 people are confirmed dead, and more than 4,000 remain missing. I extend my deepest condolences to everyone who has suffered and has been affected by this disaster. This is what happens when glaciers collapse, when mountains thaw, when the climate crisis stops being a PowerPoint slide and becomes a body count. Yet, this week, the Labor government approved its 37th coal and gas project since 2022.

The Saraji mine expansion in Queensland will dig 55 million tonnes of coal, release 120 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and keep burning until 2055. That is more pollution than Australia's entire transport sector every year. How do we explain this to a mother in Nuwakot pulling her child's body from the mud? How do we tell the people of Nepal, who are now demanding climate compensation from the world's biggest emitters, that Australia cares about the Pacific, cares about climate justice, cares about anything other than the next export contract? You can't claim climate leadership while signing off on climate destruction.

The crossbench has been prosecuting ideas gathering dust in Labor platform documents—a windfall profits tax on gas exporters, making multinationals pay their fair share and reinvigorating manufacturing—so that we are not simply digging up and shipping off our future. None of this is revolutionary. None of it is radical. It is what the people demand. Pragmatism cannot mean approving coal mines while the world burns.

My heart goes out to everyone in Nepal and Tibet who has lost a loved one, a livelihood or a home and to those still desperately waiting for news. I lost my mum in the 2009 tsunami, and I know something of the grief that a disaster that arrives suddenly and changes everything can bring. My heart breaks for every single family experiencing that grief today. But, as we mourn them, we owe it to them to be honest. We need to be honest about what is causing these disasters and what is making them more and more devastating. There is nothing natural about fossil-fuel-driven climate change melting glaciers, destabilising the Himalayas and making floods and landslides more dangerous.

The cruellest part of all is that the people living through this crisis contributed the least to it. Nepal has contributed almost nothing to the emissions driving global warming, yet the Nepalese are paying the ultimate price. And what is Australia doing? We are throwing fuel on the fire.

Last week, Labor approved another coal project, the 37th new coal or gas project since coming to power—37 too many coal and gas projects. At the same time, Labor is celebrating new fracking in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, with the Minister for Resources grinning from ear to ear, while the Prime Minister was in the Pacific talking up Australia's climate leadership. I mean, what a contradiction. What a disgrace. People see through this doublespeak. Pacific island leaders, civil society, people on the front lines—they see through this. Thoughts and prayers simply do not cut it in 2026. Those thoughts and prayers will not stop climate disasters. You cannot offer condolences with one hand and cut the ribbon for new fossil fuel projects with the other. How many more people need to die? The climate crisis is here now, but Labor's leadership is nowhere to be seen. (Time expired)

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Waters be agreed to.