Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to this very important bill, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Climate Trigger) Bill 2022 [No. 2], put forward in my name on behalf of the Australian Greens. Our climate, as we know, is getting warmer. Our environment is facing collapse, our planet is choking and, as the United Nations described only last week, we have moved from the era of global warming to the era of global boiling. This, of course, is contributed to and made by the burning of fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal—the toxic gases that are released into our atmosphere, choking our planet and pushing our precious environment and humanity to the brink.

Just recently in the Northern Hemisphere we've seen temperatures across Europe, the US and China regularly in the 40s, even hitting 50 degrees. There are fires as we stand here today across Italy, Greece and Spain, while Canada has faced its worst wildfire season in history. While we might call these 'wildfires' or 'bushfires', let me be very clear: they are climate fires. Right now, we are breaking temperature records day after day. On 4 July, it was the hottest day on record across the globe. That record was broken just one day later, with the Northern Hemisphere's long, hot summer in full swing. Scientists expect it to be broken again. Of course, scientists and experts are warning that back here in Australia we will be facing a long, hot, dry summer. We will see bushfires and climate fires. We will see drought return, and we will see heatwaves that put not just our environment in danger but our communities—our sick, our elderly and our young—in danger. We know that El Nino events are already underway and, here in Australia, our own Bureau of Meteorology says El Nino is very likely coming here soon too.

Climate change, or global boiling, increases the frequency and severity of extreme heat days. It increases floods. It is, indeed, the biggest threat to humanity, our biggest national security threat and the biggest issue facing us as a society. At the election last year, more Australians than ever before voted for climate change candidates. Australians voted for climate change action, and yet, as I stand here today, as we debate this bill, we still have laws in this country that allow for the expansion of the exact thing that is making the climate crisis worse. That, of course, is new coal and new gas mining. We have environment laws in this country that can give the tick of approval to any project, regardless of its impact on the climate. We hear, day after day, month after month, year after year, successive governments and successive environment ministers say: 'I've done my job. It all stacks up—tick. That new coalmine, that new gas field and that new big development that will take out a chunk of biodiversity can be approved, regardless of whether it damages the climate or makes the crisis worse.' If we are serious—and we must be, we need to be and we have no choice but to be—about dealing with the onslaught of this global boiling era, we have to stop approving projects that make climate change worse.

That means we need environment laws in this country that are strong enough to stop them. That is what this bill before us today does. It would ensure that, when any project is being assessed for approval by the nation's environment minister and being considered for its environmental impact, the minister, the department and the proponent would have to look at what damage this project is actually going to create. Is it going to make climate change worse? The reason this bill is important and the reason this change is important is that we have a responsibility not just to reduce the amount of pollution that currently exists in the system but to not keep piling it on. We must give our ministers and the government the powers and the tools they need.

The current environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has only been in the job for just over 12 months but has already approved coalmines. Already, she's given the green light to projects that are going to drive the climate crisis, put more pollution into the atmosphere and put more fuel on the fire. And when challenged about these decisions, the environment minister has said she has just stuck by the law; she's followed the law. The law does not require the minister to consider the impact and damage that fossil fuel projects will have on the climate before giving them the stamp of approval. Well, that's because the laws are broken. That's because the laws are not fit for purpose. That's because, in 2023, we have laws that are so out of date they allow the minister to legally approve a new coalmine, a new gas field or a new project that is going to drive and pour fuel on the climate fires. We've got to fix that, and that's what this piece of legislation, this Greens senator's bill, does today.

We're going to hear from both sides of the chamber today. We'll hear from the government that they can't possibly accept these changes today. And we'll hear from the opposition that they don't want this type of change because they don't want to put any more barriers in front of the coal and gas industry. But it's not good enough to have laws that we know are broken and not fix them, especially while they are being used to supercharge the climate crisis. It doesn't make any sense in 2023, in the era of global boiling. We're facing more extreme weather, more drought, more fire, more floods and more heatwaves. It doesn't make any sense to have laws that are so deficient that they allow the environment minister to give the green light to a new coalmine.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has approved three new fossil fuel projects in the last two months: the Isaac River coalmine, the Star Coal project and the Ensham coalmine. All of these are adding hundreds of millions of tonnes of pollution to the climate, pouring fuel on the fire of what is already a catastrophe. Broken laws are not a free pass to give the green light to new coal and gas. And it's not good enough for anyone in this government to sit back and say, 'Oh, well, it's out of our hands.' This is the Parliament of Australia. This is the Senate chamber. We are here today to debate a bill that fixes this loophole; the government has the opportunity to do it.

Later on in the year, the environment minister is going to bring forward a suite of amendments to the country's environment laws: tweaks here, tweaks there, some changes in this area, some deletions over there. A climate trigger—that is, the ability for the minister to stop climate catastrophe getting worse—must be included in that suite of amendments. In fact, we don't even have to wait for the minister to do her homework. We could get it done today because that is what this private senator's bill does.

No-one in this place can stand tall and say they are doing everything they can in the face of this era of global boiling, extreme weather, record-level heatwaves and high levels of anxiety of our young people about the state of the planet and what type of climate is going to be left for them if we are not going to do the hard work to stop making the situation worse. Why is it that, on the one hand, we have a government that say they are taking heed of climate concerns and they want to act and, on the other hand, the government have their own environment minister approving coalmines and expansions to the fossil fuel industry? Could it be that the Labor Party, just like the Liberal and National parties, continue to take donations from the fossil fuel industry? Could it be that the fossil fuel industry in this country still have their foot on the necks of the major parties?

Enough wringing of hands around the climate crisis—we need a bit more doing, a bit more real action, a bit more staring down the fossil fuel industry, ripping out the rug that they comfortably sit on, saying no to new coal, new gas and new fossil fuels and putting in place laws that give the minister the tools to protect not just the environment for now but the environment for future generations. It makes no sense that we have laws in this country that give the environment minister the right to approve new coalmines. That's what exists now. That's what this government is using, and it needs to stop. We need a climate trigger in our environment laws.