Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President Brockman, you're from a very proud farming background. My father was a farmer. I was even a farmer myself for nearly 15 years. Farmers grow things; farmers understand that one of the most critical variables for their success is the climate, the weather. There's something going on with the climate. It's called climate change. Some people call it global warming. There are a lot of names for it. It's a scientific fact that the planet is warming, and, as the planet warms, we get more extremes in our weather, which presents more risk for farmers. If you ask a farmer what one of the biggest risks is to their enterprises, they'll probably say different things in different parts of the country. Certainly, in large parts of the country, it's drought, it's lack of rainfall. There are no disputes around that. In other parts of the country, some may say it's pests and diseases or biosecurity risks; some may say it's heatwaves; some may say it's flooding and so on and so forth. Even fire is a severe risk now to many agricultural enterprises. All these things are linked to our changing climate. Yes, they've been there throughout our history, but the science is indisputable and undeniable. The variability is changing. Our ecosystems and habitats are changing. So farmers have to adapt.

For a party, the National Party, in coalition with the Liberal Party, to claim that they represent farmers in this place and not have a clue on climate change—in fact, I take that back. They actually do have a clue on climate change. They don't believe it's real. They don't believe it's man-made. They don't believe that we need to act. That is a total betrayal of the Australian farming community. Farmers want climate action. It's been great to see, in recent days, the farming community calling out the Liberal-National government on this duplicity. I believe taking action on climate change is a significant opportunity for farmers. I found it very interesting this morning when I read—and, of course, this is all hearsay in the media—that Mr Barnaby Joyce is interested in doing a deal with Mr Morrison, provided farmers get paid for taking climate action. So I would like to talk about an initiative that the Greens and the Labor government brought in.

When the carbon price was established in 2011, an offset market was simultaneously established called the Carbon Farming Initiative, which allowed land managers to secure carbon on their land and sell those permits to the polluting entities liable to pay the carbon price. It was a way to encourage and incentivise farmers to reduce Australia's emissions through financial rewards because agriculture wasn't covered by the carbon price. In 2012 the Labor-Green government agreed to amend the package to enable Australia's carbon market to link with the European Union's carbon market commencing from 1 July 2015. Had this proceeded, it would have enabled Australian farmers to turn their marginal land into more productive, income-generating assets for a change to agricultural practices and revegetation to earn carbon credits. During the two years of the scheme, Australian farmers and land managers produced 1.9 million tonnes of abatement worth as much as $43 million, assuming a $23 carbon price. However, once the Abbott LNP government pulled the package and cancelled climate action, as they did right across the board, the opportunity for export revenue was removed.

We did an analysis, and the actual total cost to farmers had this Carbon Farming Initiative proceeded would have been approximately $12.4 billion over the last five years. We know that the EU has put this back on the table in our negotiations, and the US administration is talking about potentially penalising Australia because of our lack of carbon initiatives. Of course, if ex-senator Joyce—Mr Barnaby Joyce in the other place—our Deputy Prime Minister, wants a good scheme and wants a good initiative, he has to look no further than this Carbon Farming Initiative, because we could easily bring it back. In fact, that's something we should do, and then maybe we can have this debate about how we can turn climate action into a significant opportunity for farmers.

I think it's also worth talking about the costs of political inaction. Every environmental problem we encounter is first and foremost a political problem. It might come from a business activity. It might come from a business decision. It can come from a whole range of things. But it is the role of government—

Senator Scarr interjecting—

It shows just how much you don't understand, Senator Scarr. If the natural events are linked to climate change and rising emissions, that has come from a business activity. A natural event such as an extreme weather event has come from rising emissions. It's called global warming, which comes from a business activity, just to reinforce that for your benefit. Governments have a role to price externalities. Governments have a role to regulate business decisions that cause environmental problems. I challenge you to find one that doesn't have its source in economic or business activity. And if it's a government's role to solve these problems, then that's what we need to do, but that's not what we're doing. This government has been in place now for nine years, and it has had no policy on climate change, no policy at all, and it shows. As we saw with UNESCO yesterday, it has been recognised by the world that Australia has a lot more to contribute in the global leadership arena of climate change, acting on emissions, acting on stopping fossil fuel projects, acting on having binding targets not only for 2050, weak 2050 targets, but for 2030. Coming up with unicorn technologies, delaying tactics and distracting tactics is not going to get the job done. It's what we've seen for the last decade. It's simply unacceptable to go down this road. The people who will suffer the most are farmers.