Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise very proudly to endorse these bills. The climate change bills going through this chamber are critical but quite simple. These bills represent a clear commitment from the Albanese Labor government. They represent an ambitious but achievable plan, they represent accountability to the parliament and they represent accountability to the people.

Make no mistake here: the scientific facts are clear. Climate change is a real thing, and people in this chamber are going to have to get on board with that. We are warming. There is more rainfall. Our patterns of weather are seriously disrupted. These things need to be addressed. We need to take action. The global temperature will almost certainly continue to rise, but the rate and magnitude of that increase will be determined by what we do next and by our ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

We know that there is a well-established causal connection between climate change and extreme weather events. The CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, numerous scientists, numerous think tanks and the vast majority of the globe are on board. But for far too long we've been having, as Senator Cox pointed out, climate wars with the most minute points and the most ridiculous arguments. We are effectively standing by while Rome burns. We need to stop. People are torn between the 43 per cent that's laid out in these bills being too much or too little. But 43 is bang on, 43 is the right number, 43 is the achievable number—and we will achieve it.

As a nation, we have been failing. Our climate bill sets a best-practice and science-based target to achieve that reduction. This is a floor, not a ceiling. This is a start. Let us not go back to the place where we do nothing because we are so driven by the perfect. This is an excellent first step. This is a floor, not a ceiling. This is the certainty and the mature policy that we need. The bill is a solid foundation, setting clearly and firmly in Australian law our emissions reduction ambition. It holds the government of the day properly accountable to the Australian people, and to the Australian parliament in how it measures up to those ambitions and how it is addressing this fundamental issue. It is a certainty and the mature policy that we need.

Many issues were raised in the committee hearings considering these bills, and some of those were issues of merit and issues that should be considered but are outside the scope and intent of these bills. Some issues will be captured in a range of other associated but concurrent actions that are being progressed, and I will just give you a list of what they are: consulting on options to reform the safeguard mechanism, which deals with a number of the issues that were raised in the committee hearings; developing a national electric vehicle strategy, which will be done in collaboration with the states and the territories; working with the state and territory governments to increase the share of renewables in the National Electricity Market by 2030; investing $20 billion for urgent upgrades of the electricity grid; appointing an independent panel to review the integrity of Australian carbon credit units, led by former Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb; responding to Professor Samuel's review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act; and the impending release for a proposal for an independent federal environment protection authority. Each of these things deals with the vast majority of the issues raised in the committee hearings.

As I said, the vast majority of people supported the passage of these bills. As Minister Bowen outlined in his second reading speech in the other place, this bill is important for the message that it sends to the future generations of this country, for our economy, for business and investment, for our nation and for our environment. I'm proud to be Chair of the Senate Environment and Communications Committee, and we spent two days and waded through hundreds of submissions of people's perspectives on these bills. I speak now as an individual, not as Chair of that committee, but the committee recommended that the Senate pass these two bills. There was widespread and near unanimous support for these bills from organisations and interest groups representing all facets of the Australian economy and society. In fact more than 110 organisations and specialists declared their support for the bills. Specialists across business and industry, agriculture and forestry, unions, conservation groups, energy and resources, academics and the legal sector all support these bills. Overwhelmingly, submitters and witnesses expressed support for the objectives and the provisions of these bills. They support them because they know there are significant opportunities in decarbonisation. There are significant opportunities for Australia by taking action. The industries of the future are enabled by the investment that takes place when we have clear and sensible policy, which is exactly what these bills provide.

This is what a Labor government is all about: finding the solution. I'd like to express my thanks to the members of the Greens party and to other senators, including Senator David Pocock, for engaging robustly and productively on these bills. But that's what a Labor government is all about. We care about workers, we care about business and we care about the environment. We consult, we listen and we take action. We care about investment in the future and the opportunities that are available to us through decarbonisation. We have a clear plan to ensure that we drive our economy forwards as we decarbonise. I know there are those in this chamber who will just flatly oppose these bills, without thinking about the future, without thinking about what that will do. I urge everyone in this chamber to support these bills. They are a simple, strong framework to start taking action. We cannot ignore or deny climate change. This is happening, and if we do not act on climate change our wildlife, our planet, our industry and our citizens will all suffer. I urge everyone to support these bills.