Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Hansard source

The government will of course be opposing this motion. Contrary to much of what's just been said, the funding is provided to support six carbon capture projects around the country which will create close to 470 direct jobs—jobs that the Australian Greens clearly don't care about. It will also, contrary to the assertions by Senator Waters, deliver $412 million of investment on top of what's provided through this program. Much of this occurs in a part of Australia that the Greens certainly don't care about—regional Australia—as demonstrated by what we just heard. It will reduce emissions from coal generation, concrete and gas production, amongst other sources of emissions, something we actually need in order to have a functioning economy in this country. That's the reality that we live in—something they tend to ignore down there on that thin wedge of the Senate.

Carbon capture and storage is recognised by the Biden administration, the United Kingdom, the EU, Japan, Singapore, Canada, Korea and many other countries, as it's an important emissions reduction technology. Of course, the IEA have said recently that a failure to support CCS would leave the world with 'very limited chances to reach our climate goals, if any'—again, a dose of reality in this debate.

If successful, this motion would stop these six projects in their tracks and abandon workers in Australia's traditional industries and, importantly, also in regional Australia.