Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member opposite just spoke about how we decarbonise. That's a rich statement coming from the Liberal Party that had no plans to reduce emissions, no plans for the transition to renewable energy and absolutely no plans for energy sovereignty. It's quite spectacular. All they really have is a series of empty words and poor slogans that aren't really catching on. The nonsense is so good coming from the opposition because the common sense is so limited. I was here in this chamber when the Climate Change Act 2022 passed through the parliament. It was a wonderful moment. It was a wonderful moment for the Central Coast. It was a wonderful moment for Australia, and it signalled to the world that Australia was back in the fight for climate change. It was a moment where we as a government finally took climate change seriously, which had not happened from those opposite for the past decade.

This is an opposition who continually turned their backs on the Australian people. Let's take manufacturing, Australian know-how and the NRF, and housing for the most vulnerable: Indigenous people, veterans, women and children fleeing domestic violence. And now? They're turning their back on climate reform that will benefit our people, climate reform that will benefit our economy and, more importantly, climate reform that will benefit our environment and our planet. The reforms before us here today are the first chance in over a decade—over 10 long years—to implement transformative climate change action that gets us to net zero. It has broad support—not just across the economy, not just across business groups, not just across industry groups—across the community. We have constituents calling, emailing, contacting us on social media, who are in support of this, who are in support of climate action, who are in support of the safeguard mechanism. The Liberal Party today, just now, have made themselves quite spectacularly irrelevant, despite calls from across industry for bipartisan support for this reform.

This Safeguard Mechanism (Crediting) Amendment Bill 2022 is ambitious, it's sensible and it's what's required. It's what's required for climate reform. It's what's required to protect our environment. It's what's required to sustain our environment and our climate for future generations. That's what we're talking about. Yes, we're talking about policy. We're the intricacies of climate change policy, but we're really looking at sustainability for future generations, and that's what the safeguard mechanism at it's core is all about. Australia has committed to reduce national emissions to 43 per cent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050—committed. Again, it's ambitious, but definitely required for sustainability. These targets are realistic. These targets are achievable. But it will take a deliberate and a sustained effort to meet them. All sectors have to play their part—not just industry, not just government but every person, every time.

Our government's Powering Australia plan commits to build on the existing safeguard mechanism to reduce industrial sector emissions. It provides a well-established legislated framework that places emission limits, called baselines, on large industrial facilities. Safeguard facilities are the country's largest emitters outside the electricity sector, contributing to around 28 per cent of the total emissions. These reforms back in the climate commitments that companies have already made and help meet our legislated national targets. As I said before, it's good for our people, good for the climate, good for the environment and, because they provide certainty, good for the economy, good for industry. The bill will enable tradeable credits to be issued to facilities below their baselines, and this provides an incentive for all covered facilities to reduce their emissions and access the lowest cost abatement.

A broad group of business leaders and groups support reforming the safeguard mechanisms to provide policy certainty for large industrial emitters. That's why it's absolutely baffling to me as to why the member just previously got up and in quite a spectacular fashion, as I said before, made the entire Liberal Party, the entire National Party—the coalition there—completely irrelevant. This is backed by industry, it's backed by people, t's backed by the community. It's baffling.

This bill will support and drive emissions reductions from facilities covered by the safeguard mechanism. These reforms will help Australian businesses to remain competitive as the world decarbonises and moves towards zero. The bill updates the objectives of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 to ensure that net aggregate safeguard baselines decline, increasing industry and investor confidence to take action. The bill allows for the creation of a new type of unit called Safeguard Mechanism Credits, and the bill deals with matters like the issue, transfer and ownership of these credits from facilities which beat their baselines. These credits will provide an incentive for all facilities to reduce their emissions if they have cost-effective opportunities, helping to deliver Australia's climate targets at the lowest cost. The bill also allows rules to be made about the interactions between the safeguard mechanism and the Emissions Reduction Fund, which will support the integrity of both the safeguard mechanism and those carbon credit units.

I think we need to focus on how the integrity of this scheme will be assured. The Australian government commissioned an independent review of the ACCUs—the carbon credit units—to ensure that those units and the carbon crediting framework have integrity and maintain a strong and credible reputation. That expert panel concluded that the credit scheme arrangements are sound. The panel found that there are appropriate checks and balances at the scheme, method and project levels to protect the integrity of the scheme and the credits created under it.

Industrial emitters will also have a strong incentive to reduce their emissions, but many in hard-to-abate sectors will also need options to use credits from those facilities beating their baselines or high-integrity carbon offsets. The panel made sensible recommendations to ensure that the scheme aligns with modern expectations of best practice. These include separating functions of integrity assurance, regulation and administration of those credit units; maximising transparency of scheme information; encouraging innovation in method development and project implementation; and supporting greater participation, including by First Nations communities—our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters. The government has agreed, in principle, to the 16 recommendations of the review, and is working with stakeholders on that implementation.

Let's look at the key reasons for these reforms. Australia has now legislated its emissions reductions targets and the safeguard mechanism is about delivering on those targets. It was announced in December 2021 as part of our Powering Australia plan, and it was endorsed at the election by the Australian people. I think that's an important thing to note: the policies that we put forward at the election in May 2022 were endorsed by the Australian public, by the people of Robertson, by the members on this side of the House and across the country. These reforms are expected to save 205 million tonnes of emissions in the period to 2030. That's equivalent to taking two-thirds of Australia's cars off the road over the same period.

Reforms to the safeguard mechanism have been recommended consistently and supported by business—groups like the BCA, AiG and ACCI. Again, those opposite had grand plans for safeguard crediting when they announced their response to the King review in May 2020; in the May budget of 2021, in the accrediting consultation paper of August 2021 and in their long-term plan in October 2021. These are reforms they never delivered and reforms that they now oppose. After a decade of delay, a decade of denial and a decade of dysfunction, particularly in the climate space and in the environment space, all they have to offer are half-baked scare campaigns like we heard before—the fast and loose slogans that don't stick and which are all made up from the same talking points they seem to recycle for every election. Eighty per cent of facilities, representing around 86 per cent of covered emissions, are already covered by corporate net zero commitments, because business knows that reducing emissions is essential for their long-term competitiveness in a global net zero economy.

The safeguard mechanism covers around 215 large industrial facilities, accounting for around 28 per cent of Australia's emissions. Emissions from covered sectors are among the fastest growing across the economy and are projected to overtake emissions from the electricity sector without policy action. Reducing emissions from safeguard facilities is therefore a crucial part of meeting our climate goals and maintaining Australia's industry competitiveness in a decarbonising global economy.

In conclusion, I do think it is important that I reiterate the importance of the Safeguard Mechanism (Crediting) Amendment Bill 2022. It is the first chance in over 10 long years to finally get started on climate action that gets us toward net zero. It has broad support from multiple sectors across our population, multiple sectors across the community and multiple sectors across the economy, and that is why it is so important. Like I said before, the industry is calling for bipartisan support. So what I would say to the opposition is: get on board. We have a job to do to fix the climate, and this is the way we get there.

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