Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) Clause 63, page 39 (after line 3), at the end of the clause, add:

Prohibited investments

(3) An investment for the purposes of the Corporation's investment functions must not relate to any of the following:

(a) an activity that involves the extraction of coal or gas;

(b) an activity that involves the construction of coal or gas infrastructure;

(c) a project or product that involves the logging of Australian native forests;

(d) an activity the carrying out of which is inconsistent with Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

(4) In this section:

Australia's greenhouse gas emission s reduction targets means:

(a) if:

(i) Australia's current nationally determined contribution was communicated in accordance with Article 4 of the Paris Agreement in June 2022; and

(ii) that nationally determined contribution has not been adjusted in accordance with paragraph 11 of Article 4 of the Paris Agreement;

the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set out in paragraphs 10(1)(a) and (b) of the Climate Change Act 2022; or

(b) in any other case—the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets included in:

(i) Australia's current nationally determined contribution communicated in accordance with Article 4 of the Paris Agreement; or

(ii) if that nationally determined contribution has been adjusted in accordance with paragraph 11 of Article 4 of the Paris Agreement—that nationally determined contribution, as adjusted and in force from time to time.

Paris Agreement means the Paris Agreement, done at Paris on 12 December 2015, as amended and in force for Australia from time to time.

Note: The Agreement is in Australian Treaty Series 2016 No. 24 ([2016] ATS 24) and could in 2023 be viewed in the Australian Treaties Library on the AustLII website (http://www.austlii.edu.au).

For clarity, the amendment is that after line 3 at the end of clause 63, on page 39, add: 'Prohibited investments. (3) an investment of a corporation body must not: (a) directly finance the extraction of coal or natural gas; or (b) directly finance the construction of pipeline infrastructure primarily for the extraction of natural gas; or (c) directly finance the logging of native forests; and (4) in this section 'native forest' does not include a plantation, and "plantation" means an intensively managed stand of trees that is created by the regular placement of seedlings or seed.'

Public money should not go to making the climate crisis worse, and public money should not be invested in coal, gas or the destruction of our native forests. That is what people across this country expect. What we have seen in the past is that when government bodies are established that allow the government to invest, previous governments have tried to use that money to support making the climate crisis worse. The Liberals even tried to use the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Renewable Energy Authority to finance coal and gas! So we know that governments need to be stopped from financing the climate crisis and making it worse.

We know that amendments which were put in the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and which were agreed to by the Greens and Labor stopped the destructive Liberal government from investing in coal and gas that would make the climate crisis worse. Public money should be going to public schools and hospitals, not to coal and gas corporations. But we know that every time money is put aside to increase investment in manufacturing to make the country more resilient that the big corporations will line up with their hands out. They will try to take public money and use it for more coal and gas. That is why the Greens have insisted that if the government wants to establish a fund to support manufacturing in this country—which we support as well; we want to see manufacturing in this country supported, grown and got off its feet—then that money cannot be used for investment in coal and gas, or to destroy native forests. So I'm pleased to advise the chamber that it's my understanding the government will support this amendment and make sure that this does not turn into a slush fund for new coal and gas. On that basis, the Greens are prepared to support this bill.

Today is an important day, because today the Greens have stopped public money going to coal and gas, and the destruction of our native forests. We know that has happened in the past but, through this amendment, it will not happen again in the future. This country has massive potential for a revitalised manufacturing industry that thrives in a zero-pollution economy. As we have said, and as we said consistently during the election, in many places the best job for a coalminer is another mining job. We have opportunities to grow green steel in this country, to be world leaders in manufacturing steel without the need to make the climate crisis worse. This amendment, secured today by the Greens, will stop public money going to coal and gas and stop the destruction of our native forests.

Of course, part of the reason that Senator Allman-Payne, from Queensland, our spokesperson on this issue, has pushed so hard for this is that, living in Gladstone, she knows that every dollar of public money that is spent on making the climate crisis worse is a dollar that goes away from investment in regional jobs that this country needs to ensure that workers in Gladstone and everywhere around this country can have high-paying, secure jobs as we move to a zero-pollution economy. We can have both. With public investment in public manufacturing we can provide secure futures with high wages for people who are currently working in coal and gas industries. Every dollar from the government that goes to coal and gas takes away from the jobs and wages of workers in regional Queensland and right around the country. That is why this amendment, which I'm pleased to hear the government supports, is so critical to ensuring manufacturing jobs, high wages and tackling the climate crisis.

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