Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this urgency motion that will no doubt be filled with breathless despair. No wonder children are worried about the future; by the time you finish listening to the Greens and the opposition, you wonder why you'd even get out of bed tomorrow.

Well, I am not filled with that same kind of despair because I know that the future in Australia and around the world is optimistic. I know that because of how Australia has performed over the last 10 years. It is in regional Australia where we grow the food, where we grow the fibre, where we mine the minerals. By the way, it's where all the renewable wind and solar projects are and where you will have us make the batteries and produce hydrogen—all of the stuff that you don't want to see in the cities. That's where the action is: in rural and regional Australia. We are doing a pretty fine job without outrageous legislation, restrictions and government driving an agenda that will drive Australians into the ground.

We have the benefit in this country of having an Australian plan—a particular plan that suits our climate conditions, our growing conditions. Our unique part of the world deserves a unique plan and that is what the coalition has committed to, not the UN's plan, not Greta Thunberg's plan. It is a plan developed in consultation with the very people who generate the wealth, the food, the fibre, the minerals and the renewable energies of this nation. It is realistic and it is based on Australia's miniscule contribution to world emissions, whilst the largest emitters continue to go forth.

Australia's emissions reductions up to 2030 will be 28 per cent; that is including our export data. The EU, the great proponent of all things emissions reduction, has reduced less, by 21 per cent. New Zealand has reduced by four per cent and they exclude all of their agricultural industry. The UK—they've done well—is down 34 per cent. The US—less than Australia—is down 13 per cent. At the same time China has increased by 72 per cent, India by 86 per cent and South Korea by 33 per cent. Australia is doing more than its fair share in this space—28 per cent emissions reductions. We're doing it our way. We're doing it with encouragement, with collaboration. We're letting market forces drive this space, letting farmers introduce new technology, letting manufacturing introduce new technology. And guess what? It is making them more money. They are more profitable, they are more productive and they are doing their bit for emissions reductions. Yet you won't hear that from the opposition. What you are going to hear about are taxes, fines, penalties, big sticks, because, according to the opposition and the Greens, you couldn't possibly rely on Australians to do the right thing without forced compliance.

We have committed to a plan that allows Australia to keep digging, to keep mining, to keep farming, to keep the lights on, because as of this point fossil fuels still supply 85 per cent of our baseline energy needs. It is being done in a cleaner, more controlled way every day because of technology.

We have agreed to no caps on methane, yet there is science that is going to deliver not just methane reduction through feedlots and animal production but will also increase the productivity of those herds and increase the amount of meat that we can grow. What is more important than growing food? It's something that people in the cities can't do. Even the most successful backyard vegie garden is not going to feed a family. We rely on our farmers to continue doing the job that they do growing food and fibre, not just for Australians but for a good part of our neighbours and the world around us.

Industry lead the way and they do it because it's good for their business. They can maintain export markets. It's good for their profitability and it's good for the people who work for them, who have job security.

I want to touch on some of the implementation of renewable energy in Queensland. The introduction of renewable energy rebates increased the cost of electricity by $1 billion across the state. That is every mum and dad and household paying for the change of new technology. Now, that is fine; that is part of the nation's objectives. But remember that in North Queensland, where I'm from, the cost of electricity for us is three times as high—to mine vanadium, to mine copper, to mine lithium and to mine those products that are so necessary in the world economy. We pay three times the amount for insurance, and banks and finance institutions are increasing the rate of finance in that part of the world because of climate risk. Yet we are the part of the country that is going to solve the problem through the mining we do, through the food and fibre we grow and through the work we are doing to reduce emissions—because I don't see it happening in the cities; I don't see the changes in emission reductions in the cities. That's what regional and rural Australia is asking for.

I've touched on what some of the farmers are doing. I want to talk about MLA's commitment to carbon neutral by 2030. Meatworks was always going to be the most challenging area. I spoke to a meatworker the other day who will go from being a 64-tonne emitter to sequestering 16-tonnes of carbon by next year. DIT Technologies is introducing technology to use water-soluble feed inputs. Four Seasons is doing the same. JCU has developed Asparagopsis, which is a methane-reducing but productivity-increasing feed for feedlots.

I hope I've been able to give you a couple of examples of what Australian business is doing that doesn't require the big stick of legislation that the opposition and the Greens love to drive onto people. As part of our plan we have no caps on methane. We're including soil carbon accounting. This is really exciting stuff for Australian producers. We've also included a five-year review under the Productivity Commission to check in as to what the impact is on our people, because this is about people. This is about Australians who are doing the work in regional Australia—growing the food and fibre, doing the mining, transporting things around, having the renewable energy stations, making batteries and doing the other things that there is an expectation that they will do. It is these regions that are doing the heavy lifting, but they are going to feel the biggest impact as well, with the cost of electricity, the cost of insurance and the cost of freight and travel. So it's very important that we keep looking back and seeing how they're doing.

It is important that we stop talking about the broad issue of climate change and start talking about measurables. The Great Barrier Reef, in my home state of Queensland: we talk about reducing nitrogen and phosphorous, and now we have a market based system for trading reductions in nitrogen and phosphorous run-off—a direct relationship between an emitter, or a company that wants to buy those reduced emissions or pollutants, and the farmer who's doing that work. How terrific. David Littleproud, the minister for agriculture, yesterday announced a biodiversity trading platform—again, a measurable way to understand what is actually happening in paddocks in regional and rural Australia and then to benefit the people who are having to make the changes. I think that's incredibly positive.

So I would say to you that we do not need taxes. We do not need big sticks and fines and penalties. What we need is encouragement. We need industry to drive this agenda, because that will be good for Australia. It will be good for Australian businesses, it will be good for Australian jobs and, most importantly, it will be good for our people. We on this side care about people. We care about them still having a job. We care about them being able to afford to have a lifestyle. Whilst the Greens and Labor are worried about whether electric vehicles mean you would have a good weekend or not, we're ensuring that people can still afford to have a weekend.