Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for North Sydney for her question and for her genuine care about the issue of climate change and her understanding that it not only represents a challenge; it also represents an opportunity.

Of course, governments do legislation. That's why I'm a member of a political party that seeks to form government. What we have done, as a government, is to legislate for a 43 per cent reduction by 2030 and for net zero by 2050—something which we had a mandate to do. Something we have also done is to legislate for our safeguard mechanism, in order to drive that change through the economy. We do that not just because of what needs to be done today, but because we understand that there is an intergenerational equity issue behind the issue of climate change, just as there's an issue across developing countries, who feel as though they haven't been the ones that have created it, through the industrial revolution and since, in the first world—in the north, if you like.

It is the south that has to pay, in many cases, for the costs of rising sea levels in places like Tuvalu. That is why we entered into the agreement that we did, after we were approached by Prime Minister Natano from Tuvalu to enter into the first-ever comprehensive agreement to provide security for people who are worried about the very existence of their island nations. That was a growing theme at the climate conference. I understand, as well, that young people, in particular, want—not just themselves, but their kids and grandkids—to be able to see the Great Barrier Reef, to be able to see Kakadu—

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