Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

It's terrific that we have got an opportunity through this motion put up by the Greens today to congratulate US President-elect Biden as well as Vice-President-elect Harris. Indeed, it is a moment in time that heralds a new hope for addressing global climate change. It is very pleasing to see that President-elect Biden has given a strong commitment to tackling the global climate crisis. Indeed, it is leadership, and global leadership, that is most welcome. If we are going to make real progress towards saving our planet from what even President-elect Biden has acknowledged is a climate emergency and an existential threat to our existence, then we need to see the US, as a major fossil fuel user and global leader, making real progress to not only reduce its own emissions but also, and equally importantly, leverage into the global debates that help bed this down as a global ambition.

For too long the Australian government has hidden behind the fact that the US government hasn't made an adequate commitment to addressing climate change to paper over its own lack of commitment and lack of ambition. I have to say: this lack of ambition, where they stood behind President Trump's politicking and tweets and shallowness around this debate, has been very convenient for the Morrison government, but it's not really steeped in the reality of where other global leaders are going. Everyone would note, for example, the important remarks from Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, who said that he shares Biden's slogan, 'Build back better', and promotes the idea of, and, indeed, the United Kingdom's commitment to, a green industrial revolution. You can very much see the enormous strides that the UK's strong policy settings have made in driving the United Kingdom towards that green industrial revolution. It is here that you can see some of the danger for the Australian community and Australia as a nation, particularly as one that is so dependent on global energy trading as part of its economy. We can see here that the UK has committed to net zero emissions by 2050 and the fact that Prime Minister Johnson has highlighted—and, indeed, highlighted directly to Australia with a view to supporting us moving on these issues—that 'driving economic growth and reducing emissions can go hand in hand'. Those are Boris Johnson's own words.

It is high time that the Australian government got onboard. It can no longer effectively just say: 'We will do our own thing when it comes to climate change. We will do what is in our national interest.' If we are going to be true strategic partners with the US, if we are going to create a future for our heavy industries that are so reliant on gas, if we are going to create a future hydrogen industry and if we are going to be a good partner in the Pacific to our Pacific neighbours and with the US, then we must address climate change. We must get on the path of creating those green industrial jobs that Boris Johnson speaks about.

Biden's election as US President, I think, heralds a new era where we can look again to effective multilateralism. This is very much at the heart of what is in Australia's national interest, particularly when looking to address a climate change emergency and, indeed, the existential crisis for our planet that climate change represents. I really look forward to the US reviving its leadership role in global institutions. No longer will Australia be able to say, 'We're on track to meet our carbon commitments,' while at the same time saying it's going to bank its Kyoto credits, which all of the global leaders in climate change, all of those other nations, say is an illegitimate thing to do when it comes to accounting for global carbon emissions.

So it's wonderful, and I'm very pleased, about President Biden's election. Of course, Australia would have worked with goodwill with whomever was elected president, but it's very clear that the American people have made a democratic decision, with a record voter turnout. Frankly, I can understand why President Trump's nose is out of joint; he did get a record number of votes. But the simple fact is he didn't get as many votes as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It's terrific to see a reinvigorated American democracy, with such high levels of participation. It's also very good to see the robustness of that democracy in terms of the institutions there counting the votes and making sure that it is done credibly. I know that President Trump says he doesn't like losing; no-one does. I can reflect on my own experience of being unelected when the Electoral Commission, through misadventure, lost some ballot papers that affected the outcome of elections to this place. But there is no evidence that has come forth from the United States that there is any illegitimacy to the record-breaking participation in that election.

What the US election also very much shows is that people will vote for strong support for and strong action on climate change, which was a key part of Joe Biden's election campaign. We know that President-elect Biden campaigned on a promise of strong action on climate change—not only a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 but also a proposed $2 trillion in clean energy spending, and zero power plant emissions by 2035—and a 'build back better' plan to recover from COVID and the COVID recession. It is all about creating jobs from sustainable infrastructure and clean energy.

This Australian government likes to point to its own manufacturing agenda when it looks at that, but, although it says it wants to pursue low-emissions technology, it isn't seeking to use the structural levers that will drive the economic uptake of these new industries. That was clearly delivered with the renewable energy target as being a key lever that has helped renewable energy industries gain traction in Australia. But we see a complete lack of commitment and ambition coming from the Australian government. It is high time that the Australian government got itself a proper climate change policy, a policy that the Australian people can get behind because it will lower emissions and put us on a low-emissions path. The simple fact is that with the US now coming on board to make this transition and with the UK, Japan and Europe all already on board to make this transition, we will do a great disservice not only in the context of the impacts of climate change but also— (Time expired)