Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The set of bills before the Senate should never even have been drafted. They are extremely irresponsible and will come to dog this government as this country faces more extreme weather events. We should be pulling together to deal with what is obviously a very challenging issue. But we know that challenge can be met. It can be met in a way that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and creates jobs that will last well into the future.

The carbon price package is a platform on which stronger action can be built. That is what we should be working on together right now. The new Climate Change Authority, led by independent experts, has the opportunity to build on this package with further measures. I am repeating myself but it needs to be said in the face of these very ugly tactics of the opposition: we need to be looking at the next age. We know that renewable energy projects are now commercially and industrially viable—we just need governments with the political will to put the money in. At times there would be the necessity to borrow money to build those projects—large-scale projects; many such projects have already been built in other countries as the world transitions. China have brought in legislation to increase the amount of renewable energy by 2020, and they are far ahead of their targets. They have leapfrogged us in terms of the amount of solar panels produced and the number of wind turbines produced. They are all industries where we should be leading the world.

Debate interrupted.