Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that the Morrison-Joyce government's so-called plan for net zero comes with net zero modelling, net zero cost beyond 2030 and net zero legislation?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can confirm that our plan for achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the extensive plan that we've released, will achieve that and achieve that by backing the decisions that Australians are making, particularly across our corporate sector and across our scientific community. It understands the technological changes that will take place and that we will fund and support through the lower emissions technology roadmap and many other initiatives that we've outlined as a government. That is what gets us to net zero by 2050.

What doesn't get us there is taxes and mandates and laws telling people what to do and what they can't do on their farms, in their businesses, in their factories and in their homes. That's not what our plan does. The reason Labor doesn't like our plan is because there are no taxes in it. They don't like our plan because there are no mandates telling people what to do and regulations trying to control their lives. That's why Labor doesn't like our plan. Our commitment was set out at the last election: we said we would have a 26 to 28 per cent reduction by 2030. The Labor party said 45 per cent was the emissions reduction that should occur by 2030. The Australian people rejected that, but we note today, on the same logic those opposite often put on those on this side of the House, the Labor Party supported the member for Warringah for a 60 per cent reduction.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If Leader of the Opposition could resume his seat, I was about to intervene. As I've made clear on numerous occasions, the Prime Minister needs to be relevant to the question. He wasn't asked about alternative policies. I've been lenient in terms of comparing and contrasting, but to be very clear: it's not an opportunity to talk about what was voted on earlier today in terms of alternative policies.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The building blocks of the plan which we outlined yesterday: the Emissions Reduction Fund, some $2½ billion and the top up of that fund by a further $2 billion; the delivery of Snowy 2.0 at $1.4 million; the Marinus Link and the energy efficiency improvements; the Grid Reliability Fund, some $1 billion on energy generation, storage transmission and grid transition; the hydro industry development plan of $1.2 billion; the carbon capture and storage hubs, which we believe on either side of the House—Labor is voting against carbon capture and storage in this parliament; the ARENA funding of $1.4 billion, continued funding and an expanded mandate; the gas-fired recovery projects; the King review safeguard mechanism; the international technology partnerships of some $565 million, with India being added to those as well as Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and others. These are the initiatives the government is undertaking to get to net zero by 2050. We don't even know what their 2030 target is, and they don't have a plan for any of it.