Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it is, actually. It's about zero net emissions. That is actually about climate change, Senator; sorry to break it to you. When it comes to that, the Morrison government has of course signed on to the Paris Agreement, and the Paris Agreement outlines a number of important goals.

Honourable senators interjecting—

It does. It outlines a number of important goals. It has things like a 2030 target—something that this government has committed to—of bringing down emissions by 26 to 28 per cent, something we are well on track to meet. It also talks about getting to zero net emissions in the second half of the century, and our Prime Minister has said that we intend to get there as soon as possible, preferably by 2050. One thing that this government won't be doing and where we—

An honourable senator: Reckless!

What is reckless, absolutely reckless, is to make targets or promises with no plan for how you're going to get there, as those opposite do. What are the Labor Party going to do? They don't have a 2030 target because they don't want to tell us how they're going to get there, and, when it comes to zero net emissions, they won't tell us. So what are we to take from that? Well, it might be that they might go back to previous form. When they were in coalition with the Greens, what did they do? They brought in a carbon tax. That was their main method of bringing down emissions. We on this side are about technology, not taxes, so investing in renewables, working in smart ways on new technologies like hydrogen, but not destroying jobs. Be it in regional communities, be it in manufacturing, be it in the outer suburbs, this coalition government will stand for those things, whilst meeting and beating our 2030 targets, as we are doing, in contrast to many countries around the world.