Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

May I, on behalf of the government, also join the member for Corio in acknowledging his kind remarks and appropriate remarks upon the death of Fiona Richardson.

Today I rise to table a community climate petition from my electorate of Farrer. In doing so, I would like to thank Lesley and Brian Harbick of Albury for the respectful way they put forward their views when presenting these signatures to me. I mention this because those who take a passionate interest in climate do not always allow room for an opposing view. Lesley and Brian are members of the local Uniting Church, and expressed particular concern that poor and vulnerable nations in our region are more at risk from climate change. It is a view I share, and something our government is tackling with increased spending on climate change resilience for neighbouring Pacific island countries. Australia is historically used to extremes in weather, so we understand the need to act. But we need to do so with sensible policy decisions which do not impact too negatively. We're well placed to contribute to the Paris climate accord, which in part seeks to foster climate resilience and lower greenhouse gas emissions in a manner that does not threaten food production. This is extremely important in my electorate, the food bowl of Australia.

Our government continues to review our emissions targets to build on existing policies. There has much discussion in recent days on how and when we should go about this. Many suggest we must sign off on a clean energy target immediately, or that we should already have done so, but we also have a responsibility to ensure reliability of supply. We've been told that shortfalls in the market will come as a result of closing coal-fired power stations. A responsible government does not turn its back on this information in the hope it won't happen or because of some misguided ideology. Coal-fired power is, and should be, a shrinking source for the world's future energy options, but those who say it should be stopped right now ignore the need for adequate storage and backup capacity which both solar and wind require. As the Minister for the Environment and Energy noted last night, for now we need coal to remain an important part of the mix as affordable and reliable base-load power.

This is not an easy path, but governing for all is not necessarily an easy thing to do. As I present these documents, I note a letter to my local paper yesterday. It attacked me for not backing the building of new coal-fired power stations. After two face-to-face meetings with environmental lobbyists from my electorate in recent weeks and having had an Adani coal protest outside my front door, I can assure you that the last thing they call me is climate-centric.

I've been asked to present the signatures before the end of September. As this is one of the few remaining opportunities I will have to do so, I table this for the House and ask that it be passed on to the Petitions Committee for checking and, if appropriate, added to similar petitions presented to the House by the Micah Christian lobby.

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