Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brisbane for bringing this matter of public importance to the House, and it is a matter of deep public importance. There are three reasons why we need to open up new coal and gas: none, none and none—there are no reasons to open up new coal and gas. We already generate 40 per cent of our electricity from renewables. We have the technology. The support is also there. Seventy per cent of people in renewable energy zones back projects in their communities. Almost 90 per cent of gas produced in Australia isn't even used here. We send it overseas and we barely tax it. We've got enough coal and gas currently in production to last us until we scale renewable alternatives.

More and more of the jobs in these sectors are being automated right out of existence. Renewables are among the cheapest sources of energy, and things like storage technology are improving every year. So, no, there are no reasons to open new coal and gas, but there are very good reasons to stop. We've just seen a heatwave rip through half the country, the UK drowning under Storm Bert and Florida smashed by Hurricane Helene. The climate crisis is here right now, and, instead of putting out the fire, Labor pours petrol on it, approving 28 new coal and gas projects.

If we stay on this path, by 2035, Australia—home to just 0.3 per cent of the world's population—will have consumed nine per cent of the remaining global carbon budget. It's been interesting this afternoon listening to the assistant minister's laundry list of renewable projects. That is all cancelled out completely by the approval of new coal and gas.

The LNP are peddling an expensive nuclear fantasy. Nuclear power is no solution to the climate crisis. In fact, it's a distraction. It distracts us in critical decades and actually entrenches our reliance on coal and gas. In the absolute best-case timeline, we wouldn't have a single nuclear reactor built until after 2040. In the meantime, the demand for energy continues and grows. If we don't have the base-load renewables needed, guess what is filling that gap? Coal and gas. Here's what the LNP won't say: every nuclear plant locks us in to decades of emissions. That's not a climate solution. It's a trap.

Here in Australia, as previous speakers have mentioned, we have some of the best renewable energy resources in the world. We are ripe to be a clean energy superpower, creating jobs and cutting emissions, but the LNP, backed by millions of dollars from the fossil fuel industry, are trying to sell a nuclear myth and fantasy that simply does not stack up to scrutiny. Why? Because it keeps their mates in coal and gas in business. It's a revolving door between the old parties and the fossil fuel industry. The planet burns, and they actually cash in—state capture by our fossil fuel corporations.

How does politics work in Australia? According to the official register, there are three lobbyists for every one politician in Canberra. A staggering number of these lobbyists are former politicians, former ministerial staffers or former public servants. Every single resources minister in coalition and Labor governments since 2001 has gone on to work in the fossil fuel sector. Not to drill wells or drive trucks, mind you. They become head lobbyists, leveraging their connections to drive the interests of coal and gas multinationals. We see them in the corridors here every day.

So how does politics work in Australia? Over the last 10 years Labor and the LNP have received $26 million in donations from energy and resource companies. See the link? Both major parties sell subscriptions to business forums where big corporations can buy special access to ministers. Who are the members? Woodside Energy, Santos and the Minerals Council of Australia. Meanwhile ministers get chartered flights and gifts from big fossil fuel companies, and this is legal.

So how does politics work in Australia? How does it work? Coal and gas corporations get approval after approval, subsidy after subsidy and tax break after tax break. This is fundamentally about integrity in politics, but integrity doesn't go far enough. We have a structure that gives—this is a fact—big coal and gas corporations more influence than voters could ever dream of having, and that's got to change. (Time expired)

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