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

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water. Will you stop approving new coal and gas projects?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

PLIBERSEK (—) (): No, I'll apply Australian law, as it exists. As the Greens political party would well know, because they made an agreement with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, emissions in Australia are governed predominantly by the safeguard mechanism that you helped design and that you negotiated with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. You sat on this side of the parliament and voted for it.

The Greens party say they want no more coal and gas, but until recently they were happy to own shares in the banks that funded these projects.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause.

Honourable members interjecting—

You can cease with all the dramatic effects.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unbelievable!

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Skills and Training is warned! The Leader of the Australian Greens has a point of order?

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

Mr Speaker, on relevance, you have encouraged—in seeking direct answers, or answers that are relevant—the shortest possible questions. This is a very short, succinct question that goes directly to the minister's powers. There can be no capacity to stray beyond that.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under the standing orders, it's not possible for the Speaker to ever indicate how a minister should answer a question. First of all, I remind the member to direct your questions through standing order 65(a) when you're phrasing the question. I didn't want to interrupt you before about making sure that it's directed to the minister, not through me. It has to be through me to the chair. The minister is answering the question. She went straight to the point of the question and now she has two minutes and five seconds remaining to complete her answer. Minister, you have the call.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you so much, Mr Speaker. I'll just reiterate: those Greens political party members were happy to own shares in the big banks that fund these projects. They say they want more renewable energy, but I've actually had more communication from Greens asking me to stop renewable energy projects than I've had support for renewable energy projects. They say they care about threatened species habitat. There's a Greens political party senator who wants to bulldoze koala habitat to build luxury holiday accommodation.

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my left and my right. The minister will be heard in silence.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is probably the most ironic. They say they want more housing, but they oppose every housing development in their electorates. Here's the thing: we are making the biggest transition in Australian industrial history to get from 30-something per cent renewable energy to 82 per cent renewable energy in our grid. Of course it doesn't happen overnight. We need solar farms. We need wind farms. We need transmission lines. They're going to oppose all of those, and, at the same time, they're going to cry crocodile tears about the fact that we're not moving to renewables quickly enough. We've got a decade to catch up on. We had a decade of inaction from those opposite. We had a decade of inaction when we could have been moving on renewable energy, except the Liberals teamed up with the Greens to oppose action on climate change when we were last in government. Yes, we've got a big job to catch up on, but we're getting on with the job of getting Australia to net zero.