Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Pocock. We support these amendments, which improve the Climate Change Bill and are consistent with our intention to both legislate the targets and make the government accountable for meeting them. We consider that the risks to Australia from the impacts of climate change are real. We have to reduce emissions to avoid the worse of these impacts. But we're already living with the impacts of climate change, and making progress on climate adaptation is one of the key issues that I will be progressing for the government. The amendments also ensure that the authority must consult on climate change statements, while recognising that consultation for this year is difficult in the time available. They also ensure that the authority's advice on the annual statement is not hidden when the statement is delivered to the parliament.

Finally, we also support the amendment that you have circulated on sheet 1620 in relation to the prescribed functions of ARENA. We established ARENA when last in government to support renewable energy, and we have opposed numerous attempts by the previous government, first, to abolish ARENA and then to make regulations to force ARENA to invest in the then government's pet projects such as fossil fuel-based hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. Your amendments are important in clarifying the functions of that organisation. More broadly, we thank you for your engagement—or I should say, through the Chair, we thank Senator Pocock for his engagement with us and his work to improve the bills.