Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Vanuatu's Minister of Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu, would only back Australia's bid to host the 2026 COP if Australia does not commit to any new coal or gas handouts; and

(b) the Government's first budget has over $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies including $1.9 billion to open up a new LNG terminal and petrochemical hub in Darwin Harbour; and

(2) calls on the Government to end fossil fuel subsidies.

If we want to tackle climate change then we need a plan to phase out of coal, oil and gas. But right now not only is this Labor government actively supporting opening up over 100 new coal and gas mines, but it's using public money to make it happen.

Australia is the world's third-biggest exporter of coal, oil and gas—behind only Saudi Arabia and Russia. Australia alone is responsible for 20 per cent of the OECD's fossil fuel exports. Let's be very clear about who Labor represents in this parliament: it's the coal, oil and gas corporations who are not only making record war profits while paying next nothing in tax, but are receiving billions of dollars in government cash handouts. Frankly, this special treatment has come pretty cheap. Of the $2 million donated by fossil fuel corporations—including from Santos, Woodside, APPEA, Chevron, the Minerals Council—$1.4 million went to Labor. In return, those fossil fuel corporations will get $40 billion of government subsidies over the next four years.

Six of the 10 biggest recipients of the fuel credits tax, which is the biggest of those subsidies, are coal-mining corporations. But really the biggest subsidy fossil fuel corporations like Santos get is a tax regime that sees a cleaner pay more tax in dollar terms than some of the world's biggest multinational coal, oil and gas corporations. In the last reportable tax year, the top 20 coal, oil and gas companies made $150 billion of revenue and only paid $30 million—not billion—in tax. It's a sick joke. Labor claims to care about climate change, but Labor's policy is crystal clear: keep mining and exporting coal and gas past 2050 regardless of the consequences.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. Forty billion dollars: that is the dollar value the government has set aside for the fossil fuel industry. Forty billion dollars. This corporate gift comes at a time when fossil fuel companies are raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in profit off the backs of struggling households and families. As these companies continue to make record profits we continue to live through the effects of the climate crisis. We're living through times where heavier and more frequent rainfall causes floods, and hotter, drier periods cause bushfires. The time between these respective La Nina and El Nino extremes is becoming shorter and shorter, and island nations like Vanuatu are sinking below ever-rising sea levels. My electorate of Brisbane has still not fully recovered from the floods that devastated our communities not even a year ago.

That $40 billion in subsidies also comes at a cost to our public and social services. We are repeatedly told that all of us have to make sacrifices during this cost-of-living crisis, but that's not exactly true because BHP don't have to give up their subsidies. Woodside don't have to give up their tax breaks. Santos get to keep their part of the $40 billion. Meanwhile the rest of Australia is told by this government that we cannot get dental into Medicare, we can't make uni free again and we can't build the number of social homes that our country actually needs. The truth is that we can do those things, it's just that the government has chosen to help the fossil fuel industry over you.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are in a climate emergency. Legislation on climate change amelioration is fundamental to cementing our progression to net zero by 2050. It should also set interim goals to ensure that we act now, goals which should be transparent, adaptable and progressive. We cannot deny, delay or dissemble. We cannot procrastinate or pretend. Every ton of emissions produced now and pumped into our shared and collective atmosphere makes the job harder for us and harder for the next generation.

All of us in this place, if we've looked, have seen the science. We know that a more ambitious emissions target will free our economy from its reliance on volatile markets. We know that, globally, more ambitious targets are the only way to limit the global temperature rise to the 1.5 degrees Celsius forecast by the IPCC, which, on most measures, we are on track to exceed.

How do we achieve more ambitious targets? By transitioning our energy supply to renewables; by building a cleaner, more efficient electricity network; by increasing the availability and decreasing the cost of low-emissions vehicles; by supporting the domestic manufacture of electric heavy vehicles and commuter transport; by investing in new technologies and battery manufacturing; and by improving the efficiency of existing and new Australian homes—not by opening new gas facilities and new coal mines.

Any additional supply of gas and coal will keep fossil fuel energy generation competitive. It will delay the world's transition to renewables. We've seen extraordinary progress in our transition to renewable energy in recent years. We can continue to build on that without taking backward steps—without building assets destined to be stranded as our international trading partners make their own progress towards net zero emissions.

In 2021 the International Energy Agency told us very clearly that the energy sector is the source of about three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions today and that it holds the key to averting the worst effects of climate change. The IEA mapped out a pathway to net zero by 2050. This required no new oil and gas fields and no new coal mines or mine extensions. How? By an unwavering policy focus on climate change and the development of renewables and by ensuring that the focus for oil and gas producers switches entirely to output and emissions reduction from the operation of existing assets—not by supporting a gas led recovery and not by providing more money for ever-failing technologies like carbon capture and storage.

We can support coal and gas workers and communities by creating publicly funded transit authorities to help communities to diversify local industries and to create new jobs. Fossil fuel subsidies cost us $11.6 billion in 2021-22 across all federal, state and territory governments. This is equivalent to $22,000 a minute. It is perverse that our government continues to subsidise fossil fuel production and consumption while communities across the country bear the cost of disasters exacerbated by fossil fuel use.

Australia's actions count globally. A more ambitious emissions reduction target will signal this country's commitment to a global effort to act on climate change. The Albanese government needs to provide credible step-by-step plans to achieve its net zero goals, building confidence amongst investors, industry, citizens and other countries. Our long-term national low-emissions strategy needs to be linked to measurable short-term targets and policies with defined sectoral and technology milestones. We don't need, we don't deserve and we don't want new developments at Kurri Kurri or in the Beetaloo, North Bowen or Galilee basins. We don't want Middle Arm and we don't want PEP-11. Our Indigenous people have told us that they don't want the offshore Barossa project. We want our government to show vision and leadership, and we want no new fossil fuel projects.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:1 4