Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I fully support the content of this bill, the National Greenhouse National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (Transparency in Carbon Emissions Accounting) Bill 2020. The member for Clark makes a very simple but important proposition—that, where our country has a clear moral responsibility for the carbon emissions it creates, the Australian people need and deserve transparency, and with transparency comes moral accountability. The explanatory memorandum to the bill puts the key proposition quite succinctly. The bill allows Australia to track its impact as one of the world's largest exporters of fossil fuels in the world and allows the public access to information about Australia's position in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. When we possess the facts, we can make reasoned choices in the public interest.

I recognise that a sizeable proportion of our exports are fossil fuels, and, while they add to our country's coffers, those resources are contributing to the warming of our planet. You can't just take the money and not have any responsibility for that, and so the Australian people and its democratic representatives need to be apprised of the facts so we can understand and quantify the moral cost alongside the benefit. I think the scope 3 emissions data is incredibly important.

A recent ABC RMIT Fact Check was done on how much Australia's emissions are when we look at our exports and our domestic emissions. Australia's domestic emissions, plus the emissions embedded in its exports, added 1,712 million tonnes in 2016. The latest figures that we can get are from four years ago, and this roughly represents 3.6 per cent of total global emissions in that year. As I said, they're the latest reliable figures and they are old. And, if the calculation is restricted to emissions from fossil fuel combustion, excluding land use changes and agriculture, amongst other things, Australia's domestic fuel emissions plus emissions from its fossil fuel exports were roughly equivalent to 4.8 per cent of the global total of fossil fuel emissions in 2016. That is extraordinary. It is terrifying, and it is not presented to the parliament and it should be. We can no longer have emissions data seen as part of the taking-out-the-trash movement. Those figures are dropped on the Australian public when the government think nobody's watching and nobody's listening. It is simply unacceptable.

I commend this bill to the House. This bill seeks to get the facts—and that is what the Australian community deserves; that is what this parliament deserves—and not have them delivered after hours on a Friday night.

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