David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

As has been pointed out, Australians love their sport. Climate change is threatening our way of life in Australia and it is affecting sport. This is happening now. Sport is already feeling the effects of climate change. I think it's really important to remember that in the context of this debate on this urgency motion. We are seeing sporting clubs not being able to insure against bushfire or flood damage and we are seeing pitches being too hard to play on during droughts. This is having an effect already.

We hear the arguments for fossil fuel sponsorship in sport. You do need sponsors in sport. That's clear. Professional sports and community sports often rely on it. But fossil fuel companies represent only 3.5 per cent of sport and business partnerships, so this is not an insurmountable challenge. Clearly a lot of sports are working on this.

It's curious that many of these fossil fuel companies do not sell a product to consumers, so clearly this is about social licence. The concern of athletes is that they are being used to extend the social licence of an industry when many of those companies have no plans of winding down and transitioning. That's the concern. We're not saying turn off the tap on fossil fuels today; we're saying that we need to be part of a transition, and many of these companies who sponsor sport don't have a plan.

I'm out of time, but I do want to point out that this is the first time the Greens have mentioned fossil fuel sponsorship of sport. There is not adequate time to debate something like this before putting it to a vote in the Senate. This warrants much more debate. I am disappointed that we're going to hear a minute or two from senators and then we will vote on this. (Time expired)