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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, why are climate emissions higher under your government than when Scott Morrison left office?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! Members on my left.

No, the member for Fairfax is warned. The member for Brisbane is entitled to ask his question, just like anyone else in the chamber, and he's going to be heard in silence. So no commentary for any questions when they're asked, no matter where you sit in the chamber.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable member's question is that they're not, and there'll be further evidence of that this week when we release the latest forecasts and projections and the quarterly inventory, as well as the Annual climate change statement, which is world's best practice when it comes to accountability on climate change. Our Climate Change Act institutes procedures both for setting targets and for reporting progress on targets, and we'll see that later this week.

I'll tell you what does bring emissions down: it's governments implementing policies to see the right rollout of renewable energy, cheap and clean, across our country, and to bring emissions down in transport, as the minister for transport and I have done, with zero support from those opposite. We legislated that through the parliament because addressing transport and working with industry and electricity and agriculture is how you get emissions down in a meaningful sense. This is a government actually setting a clear policy agenda from the beginning, set by the Climate Change Act and supported by the safeguard reforms, by the new vehicle efficiency standard and by our Capacity Investment Scheme, all of which has been done by this government and all of which has been opposed by the opposition, who want to stop all that while they wait for their nuclear fantasy to become a reality.