Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This summer Australia has obviously been battered by one natural disaster after another. It started with years of severe drought, record-breaking temperatures and towns out of water; exploded into the series of massive bushfires which killed dozens of people and burned some three per cent of our entire landmass; and finished with storms and floods that brought relief for some farmers and communities, although many missed out and great damage was caused in some of the places where the rain did fall. As the formal summer period comes to an end this Saturday, thousands of people have been displaced and had their homes destroyed or livelihoods wrecked.

It is undeniable that there's a climate emergency, that Australia is on the front line, and that we need to get serious about rapidly reducing our emissions. Indeed dealing with climate change should be a first priority for the federal government, and for the Labor opposition. But instead of a strong bipartisan response, to the complete despair of the Australian community we continue to be subjected to confrontation, disinformation and airy-fairy policies that mean little and will achieve even less. Neither party is willing to stop supporting the fossil fuel companies and to start working in the national interest with a genuine aim of reaching zero emissions as soon as possible. Neither party is prepared to put aside their political self-interest and achieve a consensus that transcends party politics and electoral cycles. Neither party is prepared to be straight with the public.

For example, the Australian public has been repeatedly told by the government that 'we're on track to achieve our Paris commitments' and 'Australian emissions are going down.' According to the government, Australia will meet its Paris 2030 target 'in a canter'. But this is simply not true, because the truth is that Australian emissions are going up and the government refuses to admit it.

To help turn this situation around we need to prevent the government from hiding or corrupting emission figures by giving the public better access to Australia's greenhouse gas data. So to that end, this bill amends the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 to ensure that the minister receives each quarter a report from the regulator on the estimates of Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. The minister must then table the report with both houses of parliament within 15 sitting days of the House after receipt.

This bill should not be necessary. The government should be open and transparent with its emissions data, rather than releasing it as it has done in the past on a Friday night before the AFL and NRL grand finals, seven weeks after the environment minister had received the report in the first place—or, as the minister for emissions reductions did last year, releasing the data weeks after completion in blatant contravention of a Senate order requiring a quick tabling of the report.

The second thing this bill does is to amend the reporting requirements in the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act to capture scope 3 emissions in all reporting obligations. Scope 3 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas emissions—for example, emissions which occur as a consequence of the activities of a coalmining operation, but which are not directly generated by the mining company. In other words the scope 3 analysis in this example would look at the CO2 the extracted coal will release into the atmosphere when the coal is eventually burnt for energy.

The implication of this reform for Australia's greenhouse gas accounting at a national level is that all our fossil fuel exports, processed and used in energy generation internationally, will be included in the national inventory. And that would allow Australia to track its impact as one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels, and allow the community access to information about Australia's position in contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions.

The government continues to insist that Australia can do little to influence global climate change on the basis that our emissions make up only 1.3 per cent of the world total. But when the carbon dioxide potential of our fossil fuel exports is taken into account, Australia is actually the third-largest exporter on the globe. In fact, when Australian fossil fuels are burned overseas, the amount of carbon dioxide they produce is higher than the exported emissions of almost all of the world's biggest oil- and gas-producing nations including Iraq, Kuwait and Canada.

Indeed Australia is behind only Russia and Saudi Arabia when it comes to fossil fuel exports. So when the government continues to peddle the line that Australia hardly makes a difference to global emissions, it's not being straight with the Australian people. This bill would expose that lie if it persisted, and ensure that the public can see how Australia is tracking in the global effort to reduce emissions.

Australia's domestic emissions are large, but our exported emissions are even larger. It's absolutely essential that the Australian public has timely access to accurate information about this, including an especially accurate understanding of how our massive exports fuel climate change. The government simply cannot be allowed to continue to get away with accounting tricks and historical credits when the public can see our gross emissions skyrocketing. This bill will ensure transparency and accountability in the Australian government's national emissions accounting and is an essential step towards rapid and urgent emissions reduction.

With this bill, the government could no longer downplay the importance of Australia urgently reducing its carbon emissions or continue to peddle its lies about us achieving our targets. I commend the bill to the House and invite the member for Mayo, who's seconding the bill, to say a few words in the remaining time allocated for this bill's second reading.

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