Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the environmental and climate minister, Senator Birmingham. Last week, the government finally announced its so-called safeguard mechanism, the cap above which big polluters are meant to be fined. Yet the environment minister has actually admitted that the government has budgeted zero, because it does not expect any fines to be imposed. It has also set a cap which allows businesses to pollute the highest that they have in five years and it includes multiple get out of jail free chances for businesses to breach that cap. With the first limb of direct action paying polluters to pollute and with the second limb now allowing polluters to increase their emissions, why is the government designing a climate policy that is designed to fail?