Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I won't hold the chamber up much more, because as Senator Cameron rightly points out this is an important piece of legislation, and, in fact, is going to be passed with the LNP voting for it, the Labor Party voting for it and the Greens voting for it. The problem that we face is that neither the LNP nor Labor are going to vote for the amendment that's currently before the Senate. Remember, this amendment would incentivise small business to invest in energy efficiency and to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. That position is not surprising, given the massive donations that both the LNP and the ALP get from the fossil fuel sector—tens of millions of dollars a year straight into their parties' coffers so they can run campaigns to get re-elected. Of course, those donations buy the fossil fuel industry policy outcomes, and we're seeing that play out on the floor of the Senate this morning.

I just want to be clear on this amendment: Senator Bushby and every other Liberal and National senator from Tasmania are voting against an amendment that would encourage small businesses, through an instant asset write-off threshold increase, to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency, which would help those small businesses bring their bottom lines into a more favourable state, because it would bring their energy costs down. Every single LNP and Liberal senator is about to vote against that and vote against small business in Tasmania. The same applies for every single ALP senator from Tasmania. They're about to vote against every small business in Tasmania being able to receive a more favourable tax treatment for assets they invest in, up to a threshold of $30,000, which would allow them to invest in energy efficiency, to reduce their use of fossil fuels and to fuel switch from gas to electricity.

Climate disruption, the disruption of our climate that we're seeing today, is by a long way the pre-eminent public policy challenge facing humanity. As part of that, all senators ought consider it the pre-eminent public policy challenge facing Australia and facing this parliament. We're in a situation where the new Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, is washing his hands of responsibility to act on the disruption of our climate; to bring Australia's emissions profile down; to show global leadership and show other countries that as a rich, developed nation we can step up and fulfil our moral obligations to the rest of the world.

I'm glad Minister Payne is in here to hear it. At the Pacific Islands Forum, Minister Payne managed to give a speech which didn't mention climate change. How absurd is that? Last week she went over to Nauru and gave a speech that didn't mention climate change to a Pacific Islands Forum.