Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

They'll probably say it was somebody else's fault, because they never take responsibility for anything at all. I can't believe they actually come in here and lecture us after their decade of inaction, especially when it comes to energy policy and climate change, and their lack of responsibility. It's a fact that, due to their decade of inaction, we find ourselves in the position we are in today. That's the reality of it, and Australians know it.

I thought that, first of all, they might have got the date right when they put in their MPI. But maybe they could have talked about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Did you read that? I thought they might have come here and wanted to discuss that. It highlights the urgent need for ambitious climate action—action we are taking. They didn't bring that up. No. The IPCC report highlighted the importance of getting on with the job of ambitious reforms in climate and energy, which we are doing. That's the reality. The fact is that we've taken action to take the sting out of power prices and to invest in the cheapest form of energy: renewables. That's a fact. Of course, as I said, they failed to do that for the entire time that they were in government.

Let's take a bit of time to look at the record of the Liberals and Nationals. It's quite a long track record when it comes to their inaction. Firstly, they voted against the $1.5 billion in direct bill relief to those Australians who need it the very most. They voted against price caps, which are already having an impact on prices. And of course, as we know, the member for Hume hid the price rises before the election and then misled Australians about it. We all remember the 22 energy policies, and they just didn't land one. Every other week there seemed to be some other different plan, and they never actually landed one. It was always just bits and pieces here and there, but never any concrete action. One of the worst things is that the former government refused, absolutely refused, to invest in the cheapest form of energy: renewables. And they left us with an energy grid built for the last century. Yet here they are now opposing the safeguard mechanism—their own policy. Businesses and industry want this. They need the certainty and they need stability. The opposition should be listening to what the business community is saying with that. So we—everyone, all Australians—are now paying the price for their decade of neglect, delay and denial on energy policy. In fact, those opposite are frozen in time whilst the world warms around them.

I particularly want to note the inaction of the National Party. As I've said many times in this place, National Party choices hurt. That can be seen across a whole range of policy areas, but their lack of action when it comes to climate change has been incredibly detrimental to those in regional and rural Australia. They consistently fail those in the country. And on this action—an issue that is so important to those in the country—time and time again they fail them. Even now they continue to fail them. And don't forget that the Liberals and Nationals in New South Wales sold off the poles and wires as well, which has added to the crisis. So we've seen that, across the board, at a federal level and at a state level, those Nationals have walked away from the people in rural and regional Australia.

As I mentioned before, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was released last night and confirms what we already know: that there is a rapidly closing window for transformative climate action both here and around world. We know we have to see action, and we are acting in relation to that. We've seen the increasing number of devastating climate events that we've had in recent years. In communities like mine, which have suffered so much, with the devastating floods we had just over a year ago, we are living the fact that there has been a decade of inaction on climate change by the previous government. So many in our community are still suffering because of the impact of the floods. Now, after this decade of denial and delay, Australia has a federal government that is committed to taking serious action on climate change.

I find it unbelievable that, even today, those opposite won't support the reforms to the safeguard mechanism before the parliament. This is the first opportunity in over a decade for action to bring down emissions from Australia's largest emitters. The parliament has a choice to seize this opportunity or to absolutely squander it. Of course, if passed, our safeguard reforms will come into effect in just over 100 days from now. With only 82 months left before 2030, it's critical that we seize every possible day of the remaining time to drive down emissions. We have to be doing that.

As I said, we've had this decade of denial, but now we have a government that is acting. We're very proud that we've legislated Australia's target of a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030, along with net zero by 2050, supercharging a new offshore wind industry and delivering the $20 billion Rewiring the Nation investment to decarbonise our grid and take us to 82 per cent renewables by 2030. We're doing that because on this side of the House we understand how important action is and we are so committed to investment in renewables. We are delivering huge investments in renewable energy, and record investments are being put forward by the private sector as well because of our policies.

We're also working hard to deliver on the $400 million in community batteries. This is in addition to the $176 million from ARENA for eight large-scale batteries. Since we've come into power, large-scale wind and solar farming investment has grown significantly. We have also seen a huge take-up in rooftop solar, with over 300,000 families investing in these systems in the second half of last year. We are working hard. In the last 10 months, we have set Australia on a credible path to net zero because our national interest absolutely depends on it and, importantly, our economy depends on it for the jobs and growth of the future.

This is what our community voted for. One of the many reasons they voted the previous government out is its inaction on climate change, and we are delivering on our commitment to take action. We are absolutely focused on transforming Australia's economy to a low-carbon economy. It is the most important thing that we can do to support the ambitious international action that is necessary to contain global warming.

Australians deserve protection from the impacts of climate change. This is an issue that I hear about every day in my community because we have lived the devastating effects of inaction. It resonates through a community for a very long period of time. In fact, in my area it will take years and years to recover from the devastating floods. It is often hard to articulate how that impacts throughout the community. There are the obvious distressing examples of people losing their homes, their businesses and all their possessions, but when communities are destroyed there is a huge impact upon individuals. They are triggered often by so many things. These events create much sustained trauma when they hit. Yes, we can look at it in purely bricks-and-mortar terms and financial terms, but the trauma throughout families and communities goes on for years and years. That's why taking action is so incredibly important. People in areas like mine and in the areas of many other members in the House have lived through that. That's why action is so immensely important and why we as a government are taking action.

As I say, Australians voted for action on climate change because we know how vitally important it is. It was without a doubt one of the biggest issues at the election, time and time again. People were frustrated for many years, with many different prime ministers under the previous government refusing to take action. There were just weasel words after weasel words and no set planning at all.

Here we are now with business demanding certainty. They need to have that certainty in place. They were calling out to the Liberals and Nationals to provide that certainty to them, and the Liberals and Nationals are still refusing to do it after all of these years. They still just keep digging in. As I said at the beginning, it may as well be in the 1800s, the way these people think about things. They need to start listening to the community. They need to start talking to people. In particular, members in the National Party should start talking to people in regional and rural Australia. What they will tell you clearly is that, when the Liberals and Nationals were in government, they failed the people of regional Australia when they didn't act. Here they are now, still refusing to act. You should start listening to people in the country, in the cities and everywhere, who do want to have action on climate change. The fact is we are focused on delivering that. We are doing that and we are very proud to be delivering, finally, real action on climate change in this country.

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