Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today is an important day in the history of this nation. It seems that, contrary to what would seem to me to be best practice, this new Senate is set to go to a final and determining vote on the long-term future of our environment and the way in which our economic and energy choices will enhance or debase that environment. There is no mistaking that this looks to be an historic day here in the Senate. It seems that, with less than 24 hours in the Senate, a key group of new senators will be crucial in determining the policy that will take us on either of two very different paths. One path, careful, informed and mindful of the principal of non-maleficence, will see us join with an international community moving forward decisively to reduce emissions in response to the reality of climate change. The other path, which reveals the depravity of this government, will take us away from that fact into the dangerous world of fear and nightmarish fantasy that they, assisted by vested interests, have constructed for the Australian population. This Abbott government traded in fear and lies in this policy and others before the last election and they have created a context which we are seeing come to fruition in this place today.

I ask new senators and the old to give consideration to the details of this debate as it moves forward. As history is being made in this place today, it will feel just like any other day here. There will be many distractions to call our eyes away from watching this debate closely, but I urge that we not be distracted today, that we not avert our eyes, because we will be held accountable for what we do here today by our children and their children, and indeed by our international community.

I commence today, as I do on all days, with more hope than fear. My hope is that in the debate that follows—which I hope will be a long and a thorough debate— there will be some careful consideration of amendments that take into account the very good work that has been done in the area of climate policy, energy, environment and our economy by successive governments over so many years, by international experts over so many years, and by outstanding academics and advocacy groups who today will be holding their breath and waiting for a good decision for this nation not just for today but also for our future. I could say that I am wearying of having to stand in this place and reveal and talk about yet another policy failure from this sorry excuse of a government. Just once, I would like to be able to praise the actions of those sitting on the Treasury benches for seeing some sense—but today is not to be that day.

It is disheartening in this day and age to even be debating the removal of a price on carbon as a key piece of economic reform that we need to undertake. This is a reform which has been developed over a decade by both sides of politics and by those who are sitting on the crossbenches. Labor, the coalition and other parties represented here have closely collaborated on the development of policy in this area. It seems to be basic common sense that, with human-induced rising temperatures, putting a price on pollution so as to create a price signal to encourage cleaner technologies is undoubtedly a better path forward. But, with the short-term populism and entrenched climate denialism prevalent in some quarters of our polity, such common sense does not seem so common.

Looking back on recent history, we see many have been sacrificed on the political altar of climate change policy. Clearly, climate change is a vexed policy issue deserving of a considered and pragmatic approach. It is an issue which so easily falls victim to political opportunism. Enter Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose entire political leadership from day one has been framed around undoing and destroying efforts to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change—tearing down and wrecking, rather than building and creating. That is the mantra of those governing Australia at this time.

In opposition, Tony Abbott successfully lowered the tone of debate to mindless repetition, hard hats and fluoro vests, to destroy what had been until then—and we should not forget this, colleagues—bipartisan commitment, a consensus, which simply needed a bit more work around the edges. Sadly, our nation's future has been tarnished by this cheap bit populist who cannot see past the day's news cycle, let alone look to the future for future generations. Never in the field of climate policy has so much been destroyed for so many by so few. That is what I want to prevent happening here today.

To win the news cycle, we have seen Mr Abbott mortgage our future—and that cannot continue. Do not get me wrong: Labor has to own its fair share of the blame in this policy area, for letting a climate denialist into the Lodge. In developing our policy, I echo the recent comments of the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, when he said that Labor failed to sell our climate change policies to the people and we failed to provide enough political breathing room for then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull to engage with his colleagues and deliver a good outcome so many years ago. The Labor Party recognised too late the army of climate denialists—also known as the flat earth society—standing behind Malcolm, sharpening their knives as he worked with Labor in the nation's interest to establish a lasting, bipartisan ETS, but it is not beyond us today.

We as a nation should rue the failure of the Rudd-Turnbull ETS, an ETS whose design had begun under the Howard government, similar to the one the Liberals took to the 2007 election. And sadly, as I look to the crossbenches, who can forget the Greens' political puritanism that sank the CPRS and ensured the context for this day was set up then? As Julia Gillard herself has acknowledged, by not responding to early political attacks on the carbon price, Labor allowed Tony Abbott to frame in a negative light this policy issue from day one. And now we are paying a huge price for the Prime Minister's insane negativity, mortgaging the future of this nation for our children and our grandchildren. To dismantle our nation's first comprehensive response to climate change, at the very time such a response is of paramount importance and urgency, in my view borders on criminal negligence.

The bill before us today has been put to us in a couple of forms. Yesterday it was in separate pieces of legislation. Last night the Palmer United Party voted with the government to bring this legislation back together into one big lump. I am watching and hoping that, as the day proceeds, we will see from the Palmer United Party and all of the people in this room—all the senators responsible for delivering good policy for this nation—a set of amendments that are made with care, to ensure that we do not dismantle the great and visionary architecture that was set up under the last government and that we move away from the self-indulgence which has characterised this debate when it has got to key points in the past.

This bill defies logic. It is akin to a firefighter throwing away the hose as the fire approaches. But here we are and, with our new colleagues in their first week, we must seek to do the right thing, the best thing for our country. We need to give our colleagues a bit of breathing space. That is why I hope the government will refrain from gagging this debate today. To do so would not just be shameful; it would be an abomination of process. This critical issue needs to be fully debated and the amendments of the kind that we seek for our children and their children which we will make law today require our closest and most careful attention. I trust that my colleagues who are here with me in the chamber, especially the new ones who I see sitting here paying attention, are mindful of the portent of the decision making that will be made in this place today.

The coalition's arguments are so weak. They have systematically attempted to dismantle the publicly-funded sources of independent information on climate change in a vain attempt to yet again hide their shame. This government are committed to secrecy, to hiding, to shamefully resiling from facts and, when the facts do not suit them, simply dismissing the people who deliver those facts. They have abolished the Climate Commission, to save a princely sum of $1.6 million. That sum, $1.6 million, no small amount, but is it enough to wage the future of our entire nation and our next generations on? This government says yes; I say no. The commission's brief was to provide apolitical, reliable, independent information for the public. This was at odds with the coalition's desire to shut down informed debate. That is why we must make sure that the debate that continues in this Senate, the detailed consideration of these bills, is not shut down by this government committed to secrecy.

What else have they done? They have gutted funding for the CSIRO and have tried unsuccessfully to abolish the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation thus far. At the end of this day, let us make sure those things are still standing—critical things for the development of our nation and for our future. These are the actions of a government that considers climate change is not real. The things I am speaking about reveal the actions of a climate sceptic Prime Minister, who is on the record as describing climate change as 'absolute crap'.

I note with appreciation the comments made by the member for Fairfax—who I note is in the Senate this afternoon—with Vice President Al Gore in tow, supporting the retention of the renewable energy target, the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. It is good that these things are put on the public record. But for those in the gallery today and for those listening, the debate on this in this place will be fierce. We need to ensure that these elements absolutely remain and, indeed, that the entire architecture set up for the ETS remains in place for us to act with the rest of the world and not to look to the past as this Prime Minister would have us do. These are important foundations of Labor's climate policy and, with the support of Palmer United Party senators, I hope that these elements will survive the onslaught of the climate-denialist Prime Minister and his sorry excuse for a government, particularly on this issue.

The CEFC provides low-cost capital to stimulate investment in emission reduction infrastructure and technology and the Climate Change Authority provides independent advice to the government on the best climate change mitigation initiatives. You would think that these two issues would easily garner bipartisan support, but, as is often the case with the Abbott government, you would be wrong. Thankfully, the Senate that the Australian people gave us is here. It is not an aberration and, no matter how it is constructed in the media, this is the Senate that the Australian people elected. Today we will be doing some of our most serious work. We will be cleaning up the work of successively failed parliaments that have not addressed this issue properly and, once and for all, we will allow Australia to get on in an ethical way as part of an international community responding to the reality of climate change in our time.

As an island nation known for its weather extremes and natural disasters, Australia should be at the forefront of developing policy to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. With the drumbeat of scientific findings growing louder for decades, this should be a post-partisan issue. The recognition of the need to act has reached a point where even the most strident climate sceptic publications have belatedly acknowledged the reality. Today the consensus amongst climate scientists on the risks of global warming is in the order of 97 per cent. If you went to doctors and 97 per cent of them gave you a diagnosis and three per cent gave you something different, I would say that pretty well everyone here in the gallery today would be taking the advice of 97 per cent over three per cent. That is what scientific evidence does: it provides us with something based on fact rather than the flourish of an argument. Australian people should be aware that the entire scientific community is in agreement on this issue.

Across Australia and the world there is indisputable evidence that climate change is causing detrimental effects to our weather and the environment on a scale that threatens our way of life. The scientific evidence is clear. Unlike the coalition under Tony Abbott, Labor recognises the importance of Australia playing its part in addressing this human induced crisis. We owe it to our forebears, who built this great nation, and to our children, who will inherit it, to do the right thing.

Under Labor, we did respond. We set up the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to help companies open up new opportunities to invest in clean energy technology and infrastructure, and it was effective. We set up the Clean Technology Fund and the Carbon Farming Initiative to help manufacturers modernise for a low-carbon economy and support new low emissions farming practices, and it was successful. We established the Climate Commission and the Climate Change Authority to provide independent advice on the effects of climate change and Australia's reduction targets, and we were successful. Indeed, we garnered the applause of people all around the world for the efforts made under the 43rd Parliament of this country. We provided further funding to the CSIRO, in contrast to this shameful government that has cut funding to that elite and august body of scientific leaders in this country who have a reputation for par excellence around the world, and we were successful in the innovations that they generated.

Labor's policies delivered the strong leadership needed to help reduce the risks posed by climate change. Our efforts recognised the need for Australia to act as well as the need for increased global cooperation, as evidenced by linking our carbon price to the European market. As the member for Fairfax leaves the chamber, I urge all senators to be mindful of the success that we have already had and the achievements that we have already hard won. Do not let this day pass where we take away from the Australian people the efforts of our hard work and the opportunities in a future where we make our environment, our economy and our energy work as one for the benefit of this country and our fellows around the world.

Indeed, across the world, 90 countries have implemented or are implementing emissions trading schemes of various types, in contrast to the lies that will be peddled by the government. Those 90 countries account for more than 80 per cent of global emissions. Over 90 per cent of the international economy has now pledged to take action to mitigate climate change. The European Union has operated an emissions trading scheme covering 30 countries since 2005. New Zealand has had an ETS in place since 2008. These are the facts that the government will try to hide. These are the facts that the government is willing to lie about. These are the facts that vested interests will try to take away from the public light. But these are the facts that must be on the record in this place today and these are the facts that we must contend with as we work through this package of bills, this complex set of legislation, that will establish the law for this country for a long time.

Our top five trading partners—the US, Japan, China, South Korea and India—have either implemented or are piloting carbon trading or pricing schemes at local, state and national levels. China are currently launching seven pilot emission trading schemes which will cover 250 million people and 20 per cent of their entire economy by 2015, with a view to establishing a nationwide ETS by 2020. Action on climate change through a market based response is clearly a global phenomenon as, the world over, nations work towards lowering carbon emissions through the most efficient means possible.

Australia, this great nation to which so many have come—like my parents who emigrated from Ireland—has faced challenges. We have been mindful of facing those challenges in many policy areas over the course of the last 50 years, but historic days never feel like that while they are undertaken. But make no mistake, Mr President, today is a critical day in the history of this nation. Our new senators may be only 48 hours blooded in this place, but their decisions today, as Australians who rightfully take their place, will be powerfully marked by the legislation we create by the end of this day. I urge you to look to the future, to look to the facts and to look to the reality that we have made too many mistakes in this policy area up to date and that we need to leave a lasting and positive legacy for this country. (Time expired)