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

I thank Senator Brown for being prepared to make her contribution, although I do disassociate the Greens with her remarks about the Australian Greens! The point Senator Waters was making was that the Greens have pared back this disallowance to only stop the low-emissions fund , which would shovel money at gas companies, who are the future employers of many coalition MPs in this building. These gas companies are the very same companies that give more to the LNP, the Liberals and the Nationals in political donations than they actually contribute to the Australian people in tax. But today the Senate can stop that flow of money again.

Now, if the government had tried to negotiate with anyone, they would know that the Greens are fine with ARENA getting new money to spend on transforming industry, electric vehicles, freight and regional microgrids. That is why we are not seeking to disallow those specific measures in this regulation. The final key objection to the previous regulation is still present in section 7 of this latest executive order, namely that this regulation appears to be ultra vires—that is, beyond the legal power of the minister to enact. The new regulation, interestingly, goes to great lengths to make the case as to why the government thinks it is lawful—which itself is extremely revealing—but, of course, ultimately it is the courts , not the minister , that will determine whether it would survive or not. The word 'renewable' is in the name of ARENA. The act is limited to investments in renewable technologies, not polluting sources like gas. Even if they are miraculously low emissions—and anyone who has been paying attention knows they are not—they are most certainly 100 per cent not renewable.

As Senator Waters said in her last contribution, a regulation cannot operate on subject matter that is beyond the scope of the parent act. This is ultra vires—beyond the capacity of the minister to enact. The government is so desperate to give public money to its gas donors that it is willing to break the law to do it. The Parliamentary Library has advised that this appears to be beyond legal power, and even the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, which the government has the numbers on said the same thing. If this disallowance fails, the regulation will end up in the legal system. Hopefully, the Senate will strike it down and save everyone time and money. We can prevent what One Nation love to describe as a lawyers' picnic. We can prevent that, colleagues, by a vote here in the Senate this evening.

ARENA is a massive success story for this country. ARENA is the kind of thing that happens when you put the Greens into the balance of power with a Labor government in the House of Representatives. Greens in the balance of power in the House of Representatives and in the Senate delivered the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. They delivered ARENA for this country. They delivered a world-leading price on carbon, before Tony Abbott came and tore it apart. We can do this again, colleagues. If the Australian people vote the Greens into the balance of power, we can make the next government act more strongly and more quickly on things like climate change.

As a result of what happened last time the Greens were in the balance of power in the House, we've seen the cost of solar in this country driven down through ARENA's solar auctions. We've seen ARENA fund research and jobs for how Australia is going to succeed in this world where there is no place for coal, oil and gas. The greatest indicator of ARENA's importance and success is the unrelenting attacks this government has thrown at them.

On behalf of the Greens, I thank the Australian Labor Party and the crossbenchers, who we have worked with constructively and respectfully to try to save the original intent of ARENA—that is, to support genuinely renewable energy in this country. I genuinely hope today, and I offer on behalf of the Australian Greens our desire, that the Senate will support this motion so the government does not succeed in weakening this critical public agency, which is so important as we see the climate that sustains all life on this planet breaking down around us as we speak here in the chamber tonight. I urge the Senate to support this disallowance.