Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Well, what a shambles we've seen from those opposite when it comes to climate policy! What a remarkable and quite disgusting attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Australians! What a phenomenal scam they're perpetrating against this country with their announcement of a so-called plan for net zero by 2050! It uses that term very loosely, since it features no new policy, no new funding, nothing binding them to stick to it, and an excessive reliance on vague technological breakthroughs. They have a so-called plan relying on technology that doesn't even exist yet. The emissions reduction minister said it himself: 'The plan is based on our existing policies.' There is nothing new. It's a joke—net-zero modelling, net-zero legislation and net-zero increase from Tony Abbott's medium-term target set seven long years ago.

Australians have yet to learn what this backroom wheeling and dealing between the Liberals and the Nationals over their children's future is actually going to cost them. For weeks, we have watched them gamble with the future of our country, ending up with a deal that has so far netted just one regional Australian a new job: the Minister for Resources and Water, Keith Pitt, who gets to rejoin cabinet. Well, congratulations! Never mind the fact that he doesn't believe in climate change. He becomes the first beneficiary of this dodgy deal.

This particularly stings because, while they're promoting themselves, those opposite have been costing ordinary Australians their jobs. We know that under this government 2,700 clean energy jobs have disappeared, at least. We know that the quarterly average of new clean-energy capacity is down 70 per cent since 2018, when the current Prime Minister became the so-called leader. It's a legacy of failure and rhetorical bluster. Those opposite have been running scared from action on climate change for a decade. We've seen what wreckers of good policy they've been, and they've taken down leaders, including their own former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

How fortunate, then, that someone in this place has a real plan for a real future of real action on climate change. Labor has a policy to rewire the national electricity grid with renewables. Labor has a policy to introduce community batteries around the country for people who can't afford a household battery. Labor has a policy to cut taxes on electric vehicles to make them more affordable. Labor has a policy to reduce emissions and cut power bills. We have a policy to train up apprentices in the new renewable jobs of the future. Labor knows that tackling climate change is the world's biggest challenge and it's Australia's biggest opportunity.

We have an absolute abundance of natural resources. We have hydropower. We can harness significant wind resources. We get so much sunshine. Australia has the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world. The Northern Territory gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year. We get far beyond our domestic demand and we can meet the increasing demands of the region. Harnessing solar is sustainable and would go a long way towards abating our national carbon emissions. So it's a win-win.

Up in the Northern Territory, Sun Cable's Australia-Asia Power Link is a massive strategic interest, and it's progressing well. Just this week it was announced Singapore will import up to four gigawatts of electricity by 2035. Singapore has a major demand for net zero electricity, and we can give it to them. This is a golden opportunity for Australia, for our nation. Those opposite would do well to develop an actual plan to make the most of our significant opportunities. It is in the national interest to do so.