Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

ETHWAITE (—) (): The Climate Change Bill 2022 and the Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2022 are vitally important for our nation and for our kids' future. For the last decade Australia has had a government that has used the issue of climate change as a political weapon rather than as an issue that we need to come together to solve. The former government was internally divided, and is still divided, over this issue, with some espousing views representative of people who don't even believe that climate change is real. The former government spread fear and misinformation to deceive the Australian people about the state of environmental degradation relating to climate change. The former government's policy stifled investment in renewable energy. They embarrassed our nation in an international context, with policies that represented Australia not doing its fair share to combat climate change and to put in place policies to ensure that we reduce emissions in a domestic context.

At the election the Australian people said, 'Enough is enough.' The Australian people know that climate change is real. They still feel the sting in their throat from the horrific bushfires in 2019-20. Some of them are still dealing with the mould and the damp in their homes from the rain inundation we have had over the last couple of years. Climate change is having a direct effect on Australians and their livelihoods now. It is affecting Australian communities, and Australians see that their children's future looks rather bleak unless they have a government that will take climate change seriously and take strong action. They want a government that takes this existential threat seriously and has the mettle to tell the truth to the Australian people about the real threat of climate change and, more importantly, to develop policies that reduce risk in the future. Quite simply, the Australian people want stronger action on climate change, and that is exactly what this bill will deliver.

This bill is being legislated to ensure that we have a target for emissions reductions in the medium and longer terms. But the bill goes further than that. It also ensures that there is accountability to this parliament and to the Australian people for those commitments that are made in the legislation and by the government in the future.

The bill also enhances accountability through an annual statement to parliament on the progress made during the year towards achieving reductions targets—international developments, climate change policy and the effectiveness of the Commonwealth's climate change policies in contributing to the achievement of the targets.

The bill will also boost transparency by requiring independent expert advice from the Climate Change Authority on the annual statements and future targets. The bill requires the advice of the Climate Change Authority to be public and obliges the minister to both take it into account and formally responded to that advice. It provides for regular independent review of the act. The bill will also ensure that Australia keeps setting future targets that meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement and are a progression on our current commitments.

This bill represents the will of the Australian people for stronger action on climate change. It's coupled with the other policies that the Albanese Labor government took to the election, most notably Rewiring the Nation, ensuring that we adopt the principles of the Australian Energy Market Operator blueprint for the infrastructure upgrades that need to occur to our transmission network to ensure that they can cater for additional renewables into the system, future-proofing that transmission network to cater for those renewables and investing in solar banks so that people who have typically been priced out of the market when it comes to access to solar energy, most notably renters and low-income households, get that access to renewable energy for their households into the future.

We all know that batteries are the technology that are revolutionising the ability to store power generated from solar, particularly during the day and into the evening, but we know that they are expensive. This government is acting to ensure that it invests in community batteries in the future so that 10,000 households will have access to that storage capacity.

We are investing in energy apprenticeships. We want to make sure that Australians have the skills in the future to do the jobs of the future. We all know that in international investment markets companies are now moving into the renewable energy space at the rate of knots, but we need to make sure that we have the skills capacity to deliver that revolution in the future. Our new energy skills program will do just that.

The previous government thought that electric vehicles were a political tool that they could weaponise and use against the Labor Party in election campaigns. We all remember former Prime Minister Morrison saying that the electric vehicle would 'destroy the weekend' and that it would be the end of the day for tradies. We know that that's rubbish. The Australian people know that that's rubbish. They know that car manufacturers are now moving to manufacture electric vehicles and are phasing out internal combustion engines for their fleets in the future.

The Australian people also knew that they weren't getting access to those electric vehicles under the former government because they were too expensive, because the former government never had a commitment to putting in place policies to promote the uptake of electric vehicles in Australia.

The Albanese Labor government is not only putting in place policies to reduce the cost of electric vehicles by removing some of the taxes that are associated with electric vehicles but, more importantly, is sending a signal to international markets and to car manufacturers that the Australian government and the Australian people are serious about investment in electric vehicles into the future, that we see this as the future when it comes to transport in this country. We want access to more brands of electric vehicles in Australia and that is what our policies will do. We are also implementing a safeguard mechanism for the 200-odd biggest polluting companies in Australia that produce more than 100,000 tons of emissions each year to ensure that there is a mechanism in place for them to reduce those emissions into the future.

All of these policies will spur investment in renewable energy in Australia and provide us with the opportunity to realise the potential and the comparative advantage that Australia has that other nations don't—access to sunlight and wind—to spur a renewable energy revolution in our country. Australia has one of the best environments for the use and the uptake of renewable energy of any nation throughout the world because of our long summer days and our windy coastlines. It is a comparative advantage that we should be taking advantage of but we had not been under the previous government. These policies represent the new government and the Australian people taking advantage of that comparative edge that we have when it comes to our natural environment.

These policies will also boost research in renewable energy and new technologies throughout this country. I am very proud to have the University of New South Wales and the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics based in my electorate. The research undertaken and the technology at UNSW is mind blowing. Of all the solar panels produced throughout the world, 90 per cent of them have Australian technology that was invented, produced and commercialised at the University of New South Wales. That is something that we should be enormously proud of as a nation. Solar panel technology was basically invented here in Australia yet the previous government did not do much to promote that or to provide opportunities for growth in that area. Well, that is changing.

Recently the new minister, Chris Bowen, and I visited the University of New South Wales to announce $45 million of ARENA funding for the Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics to continue its important work in improving the efficiency of solar panels throughout the world. It is ground-breaking research. On several occasions the University of New South Wales has broken the world record for the conversion of sunlight into energy. We want to make sure that a research institute like that with such a proud record of delivering can continue to innovate and deliver new technology into the future and, more importantly, that it is backed by the Australian people. It is something that we can be proud of and promote, not only domestically but internationally as well.

Finally, these new policies will create jobs. They will ensure that we are investing in the jobs of the future for Australians. I want to also point out that these policies have rather large implications for restoring our international credibility and for playing a constructive leadership role, particularly in the Pacific. In Pacific Island nations, climate change is viewed as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods of people living there. Climate change is a threat from which no-one and no country is immune.

The security implications of climate change are clear and cannot be ignored. That's why climate change cooperation is now a hallmark of the Australia-United States alliance. When the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Defence met with their US counterparts in July, both acknowledged the critical importance of enhancing diplomatic, economic and security investments in the Indo-Pacific, including addressing the threat of climate change. That was reinforced during the Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense Conference, co-hosted by the United States Indo-Pacific Command in Sydney last month and attended by military leaders from 27 countries. Discussions there centred on the security implications of climate change, as well as conflicts in the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine. I was fortunate to address the closing dinner to that conference, and I highlighted the new era we're now entering of collaboration with our regional partners and neighbours and, in particular, that the Albanese Labor government will ensure our relationships are underpinned by respect and a genuine partnership.

That goes to ensuring that we are partnering and working together, particularly within our region of the Pacific, on combating the effects of climate change. It's important that we highlight that because it has deep ramifications for Australia's standing within the Pacific and in other international fora. That is why this government is taking this issue so seriously. That is why we are legislating these medium-term targets and longer-term targets that are contained in this bill but, more importantly, why we are putting in place the mechanisms to ensure accountability to this parliament and to the Australian people for the delivery of those commitments. As I said at the outset, this is all about ensuring that we take stronger action on climate change as a nation and that we are true to our kids' future and deliver them a cleaner, safer environment.

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