Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on these important bills, the Climate Change Bill 2022 and the Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2022. They are important bills. In fact, I think they are two of the most important bills to come before this House and I don't say that lightly, because as members of parliament we have a duty, an absolute duty, to ensure that we deliver an environment that is sustainable for the next generation, not just for Australians but for the world over. We all have a duty as legislators around the world and I, for one, do not want to be in this place not having acted on something that will affect my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren. I don't want them saying in years to come that I was in parliament and did nothing about this very important issue.

We also have a duty to act for the Australian public to ensure that we have an environment that we can continue to farm, continue to have our rivers flowing and ensure that people can live a healthy life. The consequences of no action are that there would be none of those things. There would be no farming, there would be no rivers flowing, and the consequences would be very dire for Australia and for the world. Over the last few years, we've seen inaction by the government. Back in 2007, when there was a proposal put on the table, it was seen as something that could be used for politics. The then Abbott coalition decided to play games with it and politicise it. But, if you look around the world, in most nations it's not a political football. People know the seriousness of it.

I feel like we've let down the Australian public. But, more so, we've let down the youth of this country—the youth that have been crying out for action on climate change. And we've seen protests, over the last 10 years, of students—school children—marching regularly so that some action will be taken. But they're not just marching because they want to protest or because they're activists. They want their voices heard, and they want leadership on this issue. I feel that we have let them down, because there's been no leadership on this very important issue. They've been let down by governments that have been too scared to act on climate change and who fear the consequences of acting on climate change more than the consequences of a changing climate. I don't want to betray young Australians anymore, and none of us should want to betray young Australians any longer. What we decide here in this House will impact their lives, their children's lives and their grandchildren's lives. As I said, it'll impact their future. I take the responsibility very seriously, as all of us should in this place. That's why this is a truly important bill.

The Australian people have spoken. They spoke at the last federal election. I heard them loud and clear in my electorate, and I know from speaking to many of my colleagues that they heard the message loud and clear. The Australian public wants action on climate change. They are sick of excuses. They want an end to the inaction that we've seen over the past decade, and they want an end to the climate wars. There are no climate wars. This is reality. As I said, around the world you'll find that this is not a contentious issue in most parliaments. On this side, we're listening and we're delivering on our election promises. To demonstrate our commitment, this bill is one of the first pieces of legislation to be introduced by the Albanese Labor government in the 47th Parliament.

It's my sincere hope that this bill will finally turn the debate and action on climate change in a more positive direction, because the past decade has not just kept us stagnant; it's made us go backwards. We've seen energy prices rising. One of the reasons for that is that players in the energy market had no confidence that legislation that was in place, or may be in place, would remain. So they wouldn't invest. If you were an investor in renewables or an investor in new technologies to reduce emissions and you saw 22 different pieces of legislation, and none of them were acted on, why on earth would you invest when you don't know what the future holds? Hopefully this bill and this legislation will give some certainty to more investors who want to invest in renewables and new technologies. The more players we have in the field, the better for the prices. It brings in competition and lowers prices. One of the reasons we're seeing high energy prices at the moment is exactly that we haven't acted on climate change and we haven't given the certainty to industry and businesses so they can invest in renewables. Therefore, we have fewer players in the field, which makes competition harder and has made prices rise steadily over the last 10 years.

Addressing climate change must be something that each and every person in this House takes on with utmost seriousness. This bill, as I said, provides precisely such an opportunity for this parliament and for our country. Who can forget the previous Prime Minister, before he became Prime Minister, coming in here with a hunk of coal and stating that this is the future of Australia? I felt embarrassed as a member of the Australian parliament that we had that action take place here on these benches. We were ridiculed around the world for that action, and people still raise it with me.

This is not a political football. This is a serious, serious occurrence that is taking place. Have a look at the wildfires taking place in Europe at the moment—places in Portugal, in Spain and in Greece where these wildfires are becoming regular, common occurrences. This is happening in California. We had wildfires and bushfires here in 2019. We had the flooding. We don't have to travel far. We can see the effects of climate change right here in this country, and we can also see greater effects in the Pacific with rising waters. If you go to places like Kiribati, already people are being evacuated off the island of Kiribati and relocated on Fiji as climate change refugees. I visited Kiribati a couple of years ago, and they showed us photographs of buildings that are now being swallowed up by the sea. So this is happening right now.

This is a serious issue, as I said, and we need to make sure that this bill gets through. I'm really disappointed to hear, again, the games that are being played by the opposition, as they were in 2008 during the Rudd government when we had a proposal on the table. As I said, having a stable, clear and coherent policy sends a vital message to the private sector, and that is really important. It sends a message also to the world that Australia is back as a good global citizen. It sends a message that Australia now has a government and a parliament that wants Australia to be a renewable energy powerhouse.

In my own home state, we were one of the first states to bring in reusable cans and bottles. We've been doing these things for many years. We introduced single-use plastic bag bans, and we maintained a commitment to renewable energy over the past almost two decades. It was never, never a political football in the state of South Australia. Both the South Australian Liberal government and the Labor government supported these bipartisan policies in a bipartisan manner. I would want to see this go through in a bipartisan manner, because, as I said, it's our duty as members of parliament to make sure that we take action. Forty-three per cent may not be the be-all and end-all, and it certainly isn't, but it's a first step in the right direction. We owe it to the future generations of Australians and we owe it to this planet.

One of the things that we're seeing is that there's already technology in batteries, in renewables and in wind power. We have the sun here in Australia that shines for most of the year. We have wind farms and solar plants that we could generate to create energy, and lots of lots of new technologies.

One of the disappointing things that I saw many years ago was in Portugal. At the time it had one of the biggest solar farms in the world, and everyone working there was Australian. The technology—everything—was imported from Australia, and they were saying to me that they'd left Australia because there was no real investment in renewables. These are the sorts of things that we've been missing out on. And that's only part of it. The worst part is that, in those 10 years, temperatures have risen, sea levels have risen. We need to take action.

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