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

It is hard to remember that less than a year ago advocates for action on climate change, including Labor, had to warn the government of the time about the impacts of global warming. Students, the fire chiefs and business all had to warn the government on this issue, and they were met with tin ears. That the government of the day, the Liberal-National government, couldn't agree to act seriously on this issue has been a real stain on Australia's history. What a contrast that now we have a government that recognises reality.

We know that no Australian is spared from the impacts of climate change. In areas like mine—the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury—we know that we're on the front line of extreme weather events. The Hawkesbury River has always been vulnerable and is now even more vulnerable. The mountainside has always had fires, but we now see them at such extreme levels. We face disasters frequently in my community. There have been three natural disasters in the last three years. But what we see is that these disasters are becoming increasingly devastating, increasingly frequent and increasingly unnatural.

If the trends continue and no action is taken, the temperatures that we experienced during the 2019-2020 summer will be the norm by 2040. That's what we'll get as an average summer by 2040. By 2060, they'll be considered a good year. That is just totally untenable for my community, because it means that, for the 150,000-plus people who live in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, it really won't be a place where you can happily live. Our suburbs and villages, our towns and our farms would likely not be habitable.

Australia has wasted a decade in taking action, and now it's up to us, Labor, and it's urgent. Eight months ago, we were given a mandate by the Australian people to implement our climate change and energy policy, and since then we've acted. The minister's statement on 1 December last year, the Annual Climate Change Statement to parliament, was a very strong symbol of how we'll do it differently. I want to summarise some of the things that we have done in those eight months, but I notice I only have seven minutes left. There is no way I'll be able to get through everything that we have done in putting our climate plan into action, but let's see how we go.

We passed the Climate Change Bill, which was the first real climate change bill in a decade. It tasked the Climate Change Authority with providing advice and it legislated our targets—a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. That was one of the first things we did. We then got endorsement from the Pacific Islands Forum leaders to take forward a bid to co-host the COP 29. We want to be on the world stage, working with the world and saying, 'Here's how we've done it. Let's share these ideas and let's all push each other to do more.'

Energy ministers from around the country, from each state and territory, put emissions reductions goals into the National Electricity Objective. We have opened up the dialogue with the states on how we do this across the country. We got agreement to the Australian Energy Market Operator's Integrated System Plan to upgrade our electricity grid. We introduced the priority gas market reforms package so that we can avoid shortfalls, because we want to do this in a way that supports businesses going forward. We want our businesses to keep thriving and we want people to transition.

We've made sure the Australian Renewable Energy Agency cannot invest in things like coal and gas. We should not have had to do that—it really should have had absolute bipartisan support—but we did. We're reforming the safeguard mechanism to reduce emissions from Australia's biggest emitters. Again, it would be terrific to see bipartisan support on that because it's essential to our way forward. We also have a review underway so we can have confidence in our carbon credit system.

We passed the electric car tax discount through the House of Representatives to make electric vehicles more affordable, and I saw today that there has been almost a doubling of the number of EVs in Australia in the past 12 months. We have Australia's first real national electric vehicle strategy; that's a 21st century thing that we could have had 20 years ago. We have limited the amount of sulphur in our petrol, saving millions in health related costs. This is all part of ensuring that we move towards renewables.

We have expanded the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme to support stronger energy efficiency provisions in the National Construction Code, another place where energy efficiency can be achieved, and that will help our climate. We've announced the first areas for offshore wind development in Australia to continue our path to becoming a renewable energy powerhouse. This is another opportunity that these changes give us. We've appointed an Australian Ambassador for Climate Change. We've delivered a $67 million package of reforms to modernise energy market regulation with the states and territories, and I congratulate the states and territories—of all colours—for working with us on these measures.

The Community Batteries for Household Solar Program is worth $224.3 million, and I'm very pleased to see that it is open for expressions of interest. My community will benefit in the first pilot round, with two of those community batteries—one in Hobartville, in the Hawkesbury, and one in the mountains, in East Blaxland. People in these areas have invested in rooftop solar panels but haven't been able to invest in their own solar battery, so this is a sensible way to allow communities to share in a piece of infrastructure. We'll provide the infrastructure, and they can pump their solar into it and pull it out when they need it. There will be opportunities for other communities to be involved; our first 400 community-scale batteries will support up to 100,000 Australian households.

There's also the $102 million for community solar banks. This will assist 25,000 Australians living in apartments, rentals and low-income households across Australia. It is hard for renters to get the same sorts of energy savings, especially those who want to do their bit to reduce emissions.

The government has also invested $63 million in dispatchable storage technology such as large-scale battery projects and $62.6 million for an energy efficiency grants program for small and medium-sized businesses to reduce energy use and to lower energy bills. I'd urge people to look into that. There's $83.8 million to develop and deploy First Nations community microgrid projects for remote communities. There's $5 million in successful grant applications for R&D for low-emissions feed supplements for grazing animals.

Australia has joined the Global Methane Pledge, and what that shows is we have a spread of projects here. We on this side recognise that no one sector is the answer and, while we want to see 82 per cent renewables in the electricity system, we know that we have to work across all the sectors. We have also, significantly, signed a partnership to jointly fund the critical Marinus Link transmission project—that's the one between Tassie and the mainland—recognising the power that Tasmania has in renewable energy. We have signed agreements to jointly fund Victorian offshore wind projects. We have tighter noxious emission standards for new trucks and buses, again, demonstrating it isn't just the energy sector; it is also the transport sector that we are helping and supporting through this process. We have introduced guaranteed minimum stock levels of traditional transport fuels because we know consumers have to be protected from major disruptions. This transition not only involves initiatives to take us further but also things to support business and individuals to help them transition through. We have fundamentally restored—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

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