Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

SPENDER () (): 2023 was the hottest year on record, and these records are already being broken in the first few months of 2024. The climate crisis is accelerating and the world's top climate scientists recently told us they expect global temperatures to blast past 2.5 degrees, causing catastrophic damage to our planet. To avert the worst impacts of climate crisis, we have to get off fossil fuels, we have to stop opening new coal and gas projects, and we need to move as quickly as possible to renewables.

And yet, despite the commitments Labor made during the election, despite saying they want to hold COP31 in Australia, despite spruiking a Future Made in Australia based on green industries, Labor are proposing to expand the fossil fuel industry through the Future Gas Strategy. This document is practically written by the gas industry. It is a political strategy to keep seats in Western Australia. It is not a strategy that is based on climate science or energy economics, and it's so disappointing for everyone who voted for stronger climate action at the last election.

Nobody is suggesting that we stop using gas tomorrow. We will continue to use gas for several years. But the truth is that gas is expensive, it is polluting and when it's used in the home it can be bad for our health. And, frankly, it's on the way out. Gas use for electricity has halved in the last decade. It generates less than five per cent of electricity in the national energy market. And in the last quarter of 2023, gas-fired generation was the lowest on record since 2000.

We should be planning for a future that minimises gas use, not opening up major new projects. And for those who claim we have a gas shortage in Australia, let's look at the facts. We export three-quarters of our gas overseas, and more gas is used in processing these exports than in our entire manufacturing sector. We don't have a gas shortage. We have some challenges in getting the gas we have to the right places, but this must not be used as an excuse for opening up major new projects for export and providing more than $1 billion in subsidies for fracking in the Beetaloo Basin.

The government had options for a future gas strategy. They could have used it to introduce new measures to reduce gas demand, like ending gas connections to new homes and accelerating home electrification. They could have used it to make sure Australians get value for money whenever resources are sold overseas by strengthening the petroleum rent resources tax. They could have used it to ensure that Australians are not forced to pay sky-high international prices for their own resource. But they haven't. It's the same story from the major parties—more fossil fuel projects; more climate pollution—and huge disappoint for those who hoped for better.

See this speech in context