Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I don't think I'm the only one in this chamber whose ears prick up when we hear a world leader talking about Penrith. I'm sure the member for Lindsay pays attention too. When we hear about jobs being created by renewable energy projects from Perth to Penrith, that's a great message. We want to see more jobs in Penrith. We certainly want to see them just across the border in my electorate of Macquarie and heading all the way through to Lithgow, which will need to see some really good job creation. Renewable energy will provide enormous opportunities if only we move on it now, if only we get started, instead of continuing a debate about denial. So I'm very grateful to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his comments. He has nailed it in one.

Business has always known that we need to take strong action in this place to encourage investment in technologies and all sorts of ideas around reducing our carbon emissions. I know this because, before I was here, I worked in the world of investment banking and listed corporates, and for more than a decade there has been a really serious conversation about what was needed from government policy. In around 2010 they were feeling really positive about what they were seeing. Sure, it wasn't all plain sailing, but there was an absolute intent since 2007 which carried through into action by a Labor government to do something that gives certainty to business.

Of course, it was all thrown out the window in 2013. Then I saw big business, investment banks, people who invest all over the world, start to turn away from Australia and look to other places to invest in renewable energy. Here we are in 2021 and we still have business—not unions but business—crying out for action from the mob on the other side on something so fundamental to the future of our own economy and to the role that we play in the global economy.

It is not just a climate emergency; it will become an economic emergency to see action on this. But, as always, this government, these Liberals, will just delay and delay and delay until it finally hits them in the face, and then they will do only just enough or not even enough. And we can't afford that. The facts are that we need to be working in this area now. Seventy per cent of Australia's trade is with countries that are now committed to net zero emissions by mid-century. We are so far behind, and that is going to cost us in GDP and in jobs. It is the biggest economic change that has happened since the Industrial Revolution, and those opposite will continue to deny it. This isn't niche; we've moved on from this being something that just nice people who like the environment are on about. This is hard-headed business people. This is people who care about jobs. And that's where our unions come in. They care about the jobs that their members will have in the future. And they're working hard to develop policy; it's a pity that those on the other side just can't be bothered.

We know that some of our biggest export markets in Europe and the US are either considering or already working on carbon border adjustments, so it will be this government that sees Australia with a carbon tax; it's just that it won't be one that we have any control over, because it will be imposed on us by other countries. We will not be having any sort of control over the sort of future that we have; others will be making those decisions.

In my electorate, people want to see action. My councils both have zero emissions targets by 2050. My community absolutely seizes the opportunity to have solar panels and now they want batteries. We have the capacity here to be manufacturing those batteries—not just mining the minerals but turning them into the batteries that will power our homes, especially in a fragile environment like the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, where we see the effects of climate change in the increasing number of harder and faster storms, floods and fires. My community knows that we need this; the kids in my community know we need this—kids who are involved in action, and I'm with them all the way.

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