Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When looking at the motion put forward by my neighbour, the member for Goldstein, you have to verify the numbers. These are the sorts of numbers that would come out of the minister for energy's office. The minister for energy's office isn't famous for their ability to produce quality numbers. We remember the last time the minister for energy tried to download some numbers from the City of Sydney's website. We remember when the minister decided to download the travel logs from the City of Sydney's website. We have to trust but verify numbers from this minister, and we have to trust but verify numbers from the member for Goldstein. The truth is that Australia's emissions are a laggard. We are a laggard on the international stage. As Australians, we are on the front line of climate warming and climate change, yet we are way behind in terms of climate policy.

I read with interest an article in the Nine papers by a journalist called James Massola. It was all about factions in the Liberal Party.

Mr Falinski interjecting—

I will take the interjection from the member for Mackellar because he was one of the star features of the article, one of the powerbrokers of the modern Liberals. One thing I read with interest from Mr Massola's article was that the modern Liberals, the subfaction within the broader faction of the Liberal Party, have been rewarded with a few committee chairs. They haven't been rewarded with ministries; the modern Liberals have been rewarded with a chair of the Economics Committee and lots of other chairs, but they don't quite make it to the upper echelon. The modern Liberals are the underfaction of the Liberal Party. You can see it, because it's not just about the roles that they're given; it's also about the policies that they put forward. There have been a few. I noticed the member for North Sydney was pushing for net zero emissions by 2050, but the Prime Minister shut that down very quickly. Many others have said that maybe there should be net zero emissions by 2050, given all the states and territories, the Business Council, the Farmers Federation and the free world have already committed to net zero emissions by 2050, yet the government, despite the gnawing by the modern Liberal faction, despite the clutching by the modern Liberal faction, haven't been able to move a policy that is anywhere near credible climate policy.

There is a government instrument that would be helpful in bringing down our emissions. There is one. It's sitting on the books right now and it is called the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The member for Mackellar was very busily interjecting when I was speaking before but was silent when the member for New England moved amendments on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The member for Mackellar also didn't interject when the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction decided to pull the Clean Energy Finance Corporation because, in its state of disarray, it was unworkable. What did the government want to do to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation before the member for New England came in here and moved an absurd amendment that not even the government could support and they had to pull the entire bill? The government wanted to reduce the low-emission aspect of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation so the Clean Energy Finance Corporation could invest in programs that weren't about low emissions. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation also wanted to remove the financial tests for the return on investment of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Their idea of emissions reduction policy and supporting government agencies that are actually doing the work on the ground in emissions reductions was to make sure that they could invest in higher emissions technology, not low-emissions technology, and there was poor economic management and a poor return on investment. That is the legacy of this government. It's dysfunctional. The Nationals are all over the place. The modern Liberals are giving it a go, but they're only getting the committee chairs; they're not getting the ministries. What we have seen is that we are an international embarrassment and a laggard on climate policy. Quite frankly, we need a Labor government to get this job done.

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