Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

With our coal and gas exports, Australia is the world's third-biggest exporter of fossil-fuel pollution after Russia and Saudi Arabia, who are coincidentally our only allies in the upcoming climate negotiations in Glasgow.

Four-fifths of the coal we extract, we export overseas. This is Australia's biggest contribution to the climate emergency that our carbon accounts exclude and our establishment political parties ignore.

But, without a plan for coal, there is no plan to stop runaway global heating.

Almost all of our exports go to Japan, China, and South Korea. All three have pledged net zero, which means the first thing they will target is pushing thermal coal out of their electricity system.

Either we plan the transformation out of coal—on our own terms—or we let other countries make the decision for us, without warning.

We are at a crossroads and right now we're staring down the wrong path. On the eve of the Glasgow climate summit, while the rest of the world are making plans to get out of coal and gas, here we have the Liberal and Labor parties backing more coal and gas—including the Northern Territory Labor government approving fracking in the Beetaloo basin just last week.

The Prime Minister has said we shouldn't be afraid of coal, and just last week Labor's climate spokesperson said Labor won't stand in the way of more coal exports, pushing the same 'drug dealer's defence' that Tony Abbott did: if we don't sell it to you, you'll get it from somewhere else.

Imagine if we'd said that about asbestos. But Labor and Liberal keep taking donations from the coal and gas corporations and keep selling a product that causes our country harm.

Every extra molecule of coal, oil and gas that gets burned makes global warming worse and harms Australia.

And every year we are seeing and feeling the impacts of the climate crisis more and more—the unprecedented bushfires in 2019, the floods along the east coast, droughts across parts of Western Australia and New South Wales, more extreme rainfall over the winter months impacting millions of Australians.

Government agency ABARES has even concluded climate damage is already costing each Australian farmer $30,000 in lost income—all this with just 1.1 degrees of warming. We are on track for three to four degrees of warming unless we change course.

If we don't have a plan to phase out coal then these extreme weather events, and their financial impacts, will get exponentially worse.

We didn't have sympathy for tobacco and asbestos companies when their health risks were exposed, and the same should be for coal corporations who are profiting off destruction.

In good news, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the European Union and 16 other major economies have answered the call to fight the climate crisis by committing to higher 2030 emissions reduction targets and developing plans to get out of coal.

Last week the German coalition government talks, with the Greens in balance of power are working on bringing forward their plans to get out of coal by eight years, with a plan to exit from coal-fired power stations by 2030.

But the Prime Minister is refusing to join the global community, leaving Australia with the least ambitious emissions target of any developed country in the world and no plans to get out of coal, and Labor is backing him with no 2030 targets and a plan to keep exporting coal into the 2050s.

Whether it be the consequences in climate impacts in Australia, consequences for our diplomatic standing or consequences for our economy from the potential introduction of tariffs on our exports, a failure to get out of coal and gas will come at great cost to Australia and puts the health, wellbeing and economic prosperity of people on this land at risk.

The International Energy Agency has mapped the pathway to not exceed 1½ degrees. It means not one new coal, oil or gas project can proceed. But Australia has 72 new coal projects and 44 new gas projects in the pipeline—the biggest and baddest of which is the Beetaloo basin, financed by public money committed by both the government and the opposition.

It's unsustainable, it's embarrassing, and most of all it's dangerous and will cost our kids their future.

The media has exposed that our own government has been trying to rewrite the facts in the next IPCC report on the need to phase out coal. The Prime Minister doesn't like the science, so he's trying to censor it.

Which brings me back to this bill, the Coal Prohibition (Quit Coal) Bill 2021, which will do what the science demands of us. It will prohibit the mining and export of thermal coal after 2030. It's enough time for us to transition and it's enough time for us to look after the affected communities, but it is doing it within the time that, at a bare minimum, the climate and the science require.

It would do it by introducing a permit system for the export of thermal coal—that is, coal for electricity—which would gradually wind down to zero over the next decade, providing companies, industry and workers with opportunities to attract new industries and jobs to their regions.

It will immediately prohibit the establishment of a new coalmine or a new coal-fired power station. It will also prohibit the importation of thermal coal to Australia, with the exception of importation for research, heritage or display purposes.

The limitations on new coal production would begin on 1 January 2022 as would the start of the phase-down in exports.

We start in a few months time because the latest IPCC report, released this year, says that we're on track to hit 1.5 degrees of warming by 2035 if nothing changes. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for no new coal plants after 2021 and the phasing out of coal by 2030.

We need to act now. That's what the science is telling us. As the largest coal exporter in the world, we have a key responsibility to act. The fact that we have made billions of dollars because of the coal we've exported so far heightens and sharpens this responsibility.

Not only is it economically and technically possible to transition to 100 per cent renewables, but our sunshine, wind and highly skilled workforce give us the competitive edge to be the world's biggest clean energy exporter—a place where the abundance of cheap, clean power will allow us to bring manufacturing back and to process the iron ore, nickel, cobalt and lithium instead of shipping raw materials overseas.

We can make green steel, batteries, electric vehicles and their components, turbines, solar cells—these are our opportunities to seize.

Japan, along with South Korea, is asking us to help them decarbonise. The International Energy Agency said that pursuing net zero by 2050—which admittedly is too late, but it is still their target—will mean the clean-tech sector will be worth $1.2 trillion a year, bigger than today's oil market.

It could be a lucrative industry that's worth billions of dollars for out country. This is our opportunity.

Likewise, global heating is our problem to deal with, not our children's. Keeping coal in the ground and phasing out exports is the very first step. It's an unavoidable step. It is the only chance we have for a safe climate future.

We need to do what we have done in other industries that we know don't have a sustainable future.

It is not the fault of the workers or communities in coalmining towns or towns associated with coal-fired power stations. They have worked to help us keep the lights on and to power this country for decades.

These communities should be in charge of their own future. They should be provided with the support, expertise and financial resources they need to transform and diversify their local economies in the way that they choose—so that their children can have stable, good-quality jobs in the new global economy.

If we don't stop mining and burning coal we will be extinguished. If we don't start now, before the change is thrust upon us, we will see deep localised recessions and dismantled communities.

This is a bill whose time has come.

We need to join the rest of the world in making a plan to get out of coal and gas.

We don't have a minute to lose.

I would now like to read a statement from the seconder of this bill, the member for Clark, who is attending by virtual presence. It states: 'I'm pleased to second this bill which prohibits the establishment and expansion of coalmines and phases out the export and bans the import of thermal coal. Yes, this would be strong action and way beyond what the government and opposition have been be prepared to do. But it's exactly what's required if we're to genuinely put this country on a pathway to effectively respond to climate change. You've only got to look at the latest IPCC report to see we can't wait until 2050 to avoid irreversible climate change. Instead, 2030 is the key milestone and we must do everything in our power to achieve net zero by then. And to do so we must rapidly phase out reliance on and production of coal, gas and oil, and fast-track renewables. To do otherwise is to continue to trash our environment and lock in the most shocking intergenerational injustice in human history.'

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the member for Clark, I second the motion.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.