Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I listened carefully to the member for the Brisbane's contribution. There were the usual lines from the Greens about the Labor Party and telling everyone about how bad they think we are. But what the Greens aren't telling you is that we have actually been negotiating for weeks in good faith, sitting down with the crossbench and the Greens, with anyone who wants to try and get a deal done on the Safeguard Mechanism policy, to work in good faith like adults for the interests of the Australian people. That might not be in the political lines being run by the Greens at the moment, but that's fine. They're going to run their lines, they're going to play their politics on climate because that's in their DNA. What we're going to do is try to get some action on climate change.

This Safeguard Mechanism is the single biggest lever that any government has ever tried to pull in the history of our country in reducing our emissions. I would have thought that the Greens want to be a part of that and I would have thought the Greens' tone is really important when talking about progress in this place.

I'm proud, on this side of the House, to be part of a government that is trying to take the single largest leap forward in emissions reduction in our country's history. That's what the safeguard mechanism is all about, and we have tried to do it in a way that is always the challenge of those in the Labor Party—to bring together those who live in the real world—industry and businesses—while also bringing together those who want to see action on climate and want to see Australia take a leadership role in tackling our rising emissions. That's what this mechanism does. There are multiple parts to it. The first part, the baseline crediting system, is set out in this legislation.

The whole philosophy behind the safeguard mechanism scheme is to make the 215 largest emitters across our country reduce their emissions by an average of around five per cent each and every year—five per cent next year, five per cent the year after and so on. That is a big task for some of these facilities, which have never had such intense policy placed on them. We need to bring people with us, and we need to ensure that we are implementing a policy that actually reduces emissions, one that industry cannot ignore.

What's really important is that the baseline crediting system incentivises businesses for emissions reduction. If a business or a facility is able to reduce its emissions by more than the five per cent, the crediting system will allow it to sell its legitimate emissions reduction efforts. It's a way of saying to a business, 'If you go beyond the emissions reductions that are required as per the safeguard mechanism scheme, you can be incentivised for that.' It also creates a market where other businesses can purchase those credits. It's a really sensible scheme. It incentivises emissions reduction. It creates a market for businesses that require offsets, where it is harder for particular facilities to reduce emissions, and for those that are able to successfully go beyond the baseline crediting.

This scheme also works with the framework that was set up by the previous government. While that framework's baseline levels were too weak and it didn't actually bring down emissions, the fundamentals of incentivising large emitters to reduce their emissions were actually an idea that was cooked up by those opposite. In this new culture of the coalition wanting to oppose every single aspect of climate and emissions-reduction policy, they're now voting against the very thing that they helped create. Anyway, that's the world that we live in. That's the world where the coalition has decided to be. That's the world where those on the other side of the chamber are not recognising the fact that a number of seats that used to be held by their colleagues are now held by the crossbench, or by Labor—a number of seats that no-one in the history of the Labor Party ever thought that we would hold but we proudly hold. Those opposite are living in a world where they are denying the need to tackle climate change. It is, politically, a very dark place for them. They seem not to have learned that lesson, but far be it from me to stop them. Don't interrupt your opponents when they're making a mistake—I think that's the old saying.

So the first aspect is the baseline crediting system, where we're incentivising business to go beyond the five per cent emissions reductions required for each facility. Other aspects that will be part of the safeguard mechanism will be predominantly effected through regulation, but it is all important to this particular policy. There are other credits that can be accessed, and I think there are important discussions going on that will give confidence to the Australian people.

I want to take this moment to acknowledge the many conversations that I have had with peak bodies, with experts and with representatives from organisations like the Climate Council—first-class civil society organisations who are working tirelessly to make sure that this policy is everything that it needs to be. I want to thank those in the environmental and climate movement who have spent time with me, especially up here in Canberra but, even more so, in my electorate. I am so proud that in Macnamara we have people who are civic-minded and who know that we are part of the last generation that can tackle climate change in a meaningful way and that we must be a part of the solution. I have always said yes to any local group that seeks to meet with me on this matter because not only does it help me to better represent the people in my electorate but also it helps me to understand and to hear from some of the most articulate and thoughtful people who live in my electorate. I am proud to be their representative and I'm proud to be an MP in this place who will always push for more climate action and for more efforts to reduce our emissions as quickly as possible. We need to make sure that we are providing confidence to those people—and to all people, including industry—about the integrity of our offset system, and those really important discussions are happening right now that will ensure that people have confidence in this scheme.

Under the scheme, each and every facility is going to be required to reduce their emissions by five per cent. It's absolutely essential that we implement the safeguard mechanism if we are going to hit our 43 per cent emissions reduction targets. We cannot keep wasting time in this place. It must be the case that, at every single opportunity to make a difference and progress climate action and climate policy in this place, we take a step forward, and this safeguard mechanism scheme is an almighty step forward. It does deal with the total quantum of emissions that are allowed as part of the safeguard facility and, while the safeguard mechanism scheme can be tweaked in the years to come, it is really important that we get the foundations laid this year and as quickly as possible. That's because, if we are to hit our 2030 emission reduction targets, we need to make sure that we have all of the levers in place. It's not just me saying that. In the conversations that I've had with a lot of those bodies that are seeking to make progress, everyone—not those characters opposite, but all of the serious people—fundamentally agrees that having the safeguard mechanism system in place is a huge improvement on the current regime that we inherited from those opposite.

This is important reform. This is reform that will ensure that businesses and facilities are reducing their emissions. This is reform that will make one of the most important contributions to our 2030 emissions reduction target and is also going to provide certainty for businesses who operate in difficult environments. It is very difficult for some of the businesses and facilities that we're talking about to reduce emissions. We're talking about facilities that produce concrete. There is a facility that is a lithium mine. We need these sorts of minerals in order to create batteries and create the sorts of products that we need on our pathway towards net zero, but the actual mining of lithium is an extremely emissions-intensive process. Therefore, we need to do everything we can to reduce the amount of emissions as part of that, because we are going to need a lot of lithium and other critical minerals to be able to create batteries, solar panels and wind farms. We're going to need minerals to be able to create the sorts of products that we need to have a more sustainable and more renewable future. That's why we need to work with industry. It's really important that we get this right.

In the final part of my contribution, I will just reiterate where I started. It is extraordinary that, since the government came into office, the coalition have made the determination that they are not interested in climate change and emissions reduction. They suffered extraordinary losses at the last election. No-one in the last election lost to a candidate who was offering lower emissions reduction targets—no-one. The politics of this seems to be completely lost on those opposite. They've dealt themselves out of this conversation.

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