Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in opposition to the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill 2024, because this is just more of the same from the Albanese government. This is another cog in the machine that is their environmental policy, which will see this nation burdened with debt and dysfunction for generations to come. I certainly will not stand by and quietly let that happen. So speaking against this bill is important.

The bill supposedly is to create yet another department, which seems to be something that the Albanese government is excelling at—that is, creating bureaucracy. I know, when it comes to renewable energy, the Prime Minister loves to come in here and talk about us being a renewable energy superpower. At this rate, the only superpower we're going to be is a bureaucratic one. With the proposed 36,000 public servants, at the cost of $24 billion over the forward estimates, we are becoming a bureaucratic paradise under this Labor government.

This bill moves the current agency that operates under the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet out into its own independent authority and it's given a number of responsibilities to facilitate both government and private participation and investment, to support effective workers, to support First Nations Australians to participate in the transition and to deliver educational and promotional initiatives as Australia transitions to a net zero emissions economy. It all sounds very lovely, but, as is the case with Labor, the serving suggestion label should not be taken as what it is, because it looks very different to that in operation. When the cake is made, it looks and tastes very different.

This bill will facilitate projects that are already having a very negative impact on my local area. The Forest Wind project that is proposed for the coast is one of the biggest wind turbine electricity generation projects, with hundreds and hundreds of these giant wind turbines, and there's been virtually no consultation with the people living around the project. This has been thrust upon them. What a cracker the Borumba Dam pumped hydro project is—$14 billion proposed for a pumped hydro scheme that will produce two gigawatts for 24 hours! No wonder the Labor government is refusing to give over the business case and the detail on this project, because blind Freddy can see that that is a project that will not stack up. It's been thrown out there based on ideology and politics, not on the economy and science. This is what we are experiencing throughout Australia with these mad projects. This is the main focus of this government. When we're in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis that has been acknowledged and by the Reserve Bank governor as being somewhat homegrown now, they want to concentrate on this ideological madness where they're killing off industries instead of growing them.

Look at the comparison between that and the approach of the coalition. We have already announced that our plan is not to pick industries that will die under our administration. It is to support all industries that will potentially flourish and produce employment and revenue to provide the services that we rely on. We will streamline approvals for projects like gas projects, which will be required as we move forward. We will streamline those projects and so those projects will come online quicker and there will be more jobs in those industries for Australians. There will be more jobs for workers. We'll also look at some of the barriers that are stopping Australians from having those jobs, like the Environmental Defenders Office. We will defund them, because all they're doing, and all this government is doing in supporting them and funding them, is killing Australian jobs for workers. It defies belief that the Australian Labor Party has got to the point where, due to its left-wing ideology, it is now saying to tried and proven industries with blue-collar workers, 'Your industry? No, we don't like it anymore. We're going to kill it.'

This bill is not a shopfront for industry. It is palliative care. It is an industry hospice. Let me tell you about these jobs and these industries. You go in there. They'll give you a bit of support. But guess what? You are not going home, and there are no jobs at the end of this. There is the suggestion that green hydrogen is going to save the country. The numbers around that are just mind-bogglingly ridiculous. Eight hundred gigawatts of energy are required for this proposition. If you believe that, I've got a really good deal on a bridge! It looks like a coathanger, and I'll give it to you for a really good price! That's how mad these things are. These proposals say, 'We're going to transition you out of being a well-paid miner into manufacturing solar panels.' That's the alternative that's being suggested here, and this bill facilitates all of this. Talk about taking proud Australian workers and almost ridiculing them with this sort of stuff! What has happened to the Australian Labor Party?

Once upon a time, the unions looked after their workers. They have a proud history of this. I remember going on a driving holiday with my kids years ago and stopping in Barcaldine at the Tree of Knowledge. I remember showing the kids the Tree of Knowledge and telling them about the shearers' strike of 1891 and explaining to them the importance of these things throughout Australian history. But if I were taking that same trip now, I'd be saying, 'Now you can't recognise that party for what it was when that manifesto was read under that tree in the 1890s. It's now some sort of left-wing ideological servant of the United Nations that kills off jobs. It doesn't support fair conditions for workers. It actually puts them into unemployment.' My goodness, me! What has happened to the Australian Labor Party?

As I said earlier, people out there are currently in a cost-of-living crisis. There has been an 11 per cent increase in the price of food. Housing has gone up by 14 per cent, rents by 30 per cent, electricity by 20 per cent, gas by 25 per cent and health by 11 per cent. And we're talking about killing off industries and killing off revenues and pumping government money into the economy with a bureaucracy that is only going to inflate these problems? There is no sign of course of the $275 promised at the last election by the Prime Minister, who stood before the Australian population many, many times at many venues and promised that, under him, there would be this $275 reduction in your power bill. That certainly turned out to be an absolute and utter falsehood.

You've got to ask yourself, when you look at this bill and you take into consideration those numbers of 36,000 more public servants and the $24 billion: Is this going to save us somewhere? Is this going to perform a function that's going to improve the country? When you look at the detail, the answer is no, because these positions that are being created are basically duplicating positions that already exist. Even if you support the intention of the government in creating this department, surely you can't support the fact that it will be doing a job that other state and federal departments are currently doing. It makes no sense, it's economically irresponsible and, at what is now forecast to be a billion dollars for this department, it defies belief.

In conclusion I will say that, aside from the obvious problems with this bill—the duplication; the fact it's masquerading as an industrial relations bill when it's designed to give the unions more power—you have to ask yourself: what it is ultimately going to do? What is this government department going to do? I can tell you what it's not going to do, and that's change the temperature of the world. This government department will have no influence whatsoever on the temperature of the world. Look at our international trading partners, particularly China. Our emissions for 2023 were a bit over 400 million tonnes, which is only about 75 per cent of China's increase for that year. If you take our emissions right out, China, with its increase, will have increased global emissions without us. You think to yourself: China has agreed that its carbon emissions will peak by 2030 and it will be net zero by 2060, but some people are anticipating that it has 300 gigawatts of coal-fired power currently under construction and planned. Bear in mind that our energy system in Australia is about 70 gigawatts. They've got 300 gigawatts of coal-fired power planned or under construction. Is this bill going to make any difference whatsoever? Is China going to achieve these goals that it's signed up to? It's obvious that it won't.

Based on ideology and politics, we're going to trade in our First World economy for an unreliable, intermittent energy source that ultimately is going to be very expensive, before it collapses. This is an atrocious bill that has been put forward by an atrocious government.

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