Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I want to rise and speak in favour of these amendments again, and I want to take the minister up on the observation she just made. The idea of Australia stepping into our obligations under the protocol is something that has been under discussion in this House and in various committees since December last year. I thank the government for that level of consultation. I wasn't privy to any of those committee discussions. I have read the reports since, though, and I've seen that, during that process, there was a large amount of feedback from key stakeholders across our country, voicing really significant concerns about Australia enacting any sort of legislation around carbon capture and storage. Those concerns were based on the 'why' of doing it at this point in time. They were based on the soundness of the research to support carbon capture and storage, particularly on the basis that it is yet to be successful in Australia. The concerns were also based on the international citizenship of Australia and our behaviour in looking to offshore our own carbon dioxide emissions.

I would reflect back to the minister that there was a lot of feedback, during those processes, through those committees, from people raising concerns. I would also feed back to the House that, at the moment, there is the largest crossbench in history in this place, and we are here because our community said they want politics done differently. But, like every other member in this House, we have very limited resources—I have one policy person. I do apologise for not having engaged in this process earlier, but, in trying to keep my electoral office running and get across every piece of legislation that this government brings to this House in any sitting week, sometimes, even with my best efforts, I can only get to it in the week that I know it's coming into the chamber.

What I would ask is that, in consideration of that, we work together—crossbench and government—to ensure that, when those briefing opportunities are put in place, we push each other more adequately at that point in time. My recollection of the briefing on this is that, in the last sitting weeks, we were given a very short briefing by two people from the minister's team, and there was no robust debate around it at that point in time. Again, I would ask that any piece of legislation be open for a consideration in detail at this point, as is appropriate in this place. It's why we have a consideration-in-detail debate. I would encourage everybody in this place, even those who are members of the major parties, to get involved in the debate. If it's only the crossbench standing up and debating legislation in this place, Australians are not seeing democracy in action.

See this speech in context