Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This budget week, the government has turned its attention to what it would like to do to make up for lost time in addressing climate change. We must be sure the Future Made in Australia program is effectively managed and targeted to achieve the government's aims and to get us into the business of processing critical minerals and new technologies that are currently somewhat unproven, like green hydrogen. The plan remains vague. That said, we've already wasted a decade in denial and delay, and the danger is that as a result our children will not enjoy the same prosperity to which we've become accustomed. As if that were not enough, it's not much more than a week since the Guardian newspaper polled experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their current predictions on the course of global warning. Nearly 80 per cent of them now anticipate global heating of at least 2.5 degrees, a full degree above the internationally agreed target of 1.5 degrees.

The recent decision of the government to lock in dependence on gas until at least 2050 is bad news for all of us working for a cleaner, greener future. The government's approach is at odds with the global, national and personal approaches needed for climate action. That applies to the Sandy Eco Expo, which I had the privilege to attend last weekend at the Sandybeach Centre in the heart of my community in the electorate of Goldstein. It was quite something, and I congratulate Village Zero, the City of Bayside and the Sandybeach community centre for getting it off the ground. The expo was all about what we can do as individuals and as a community to reduce pollution, improve the quality of the environment and reduce our carbon footprint. I was particularly taken with an initiative developed by Our Kinds to get rid of single-use cups, the pollution that they cause and the fossil fuels used in their manufacture. It involves the use of a QR code on the base of the cup. You bring it to your local cafe, have the QR code registered, buy your coffee, drink it, wash the cup and bring it back for more—one small step to help consumers to reduce their carbon footprint.

But I think those of us at the expo would agree that the government cooling its own climate change policies is at odds with its expectations that all of us will do our bit at the local level. Dare I say it, the government might be better advised to stop contradicting itself while communities stretch to change their habits, and change its own.