Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Contrary to the assertions made by the Greens Party in the chamber today, the federal Labor government is committed to bringing down emissions and protecting our natural environment. The evidence of this commitment exists in the statute books, the pieces of legislation made law often with the support of the Greens, who have brought this motion to the Senate today. It's true that we worked with the Greens to implement a climate target to legislate a net zero commitment and to legislate a climate safeguard mechanism.

But, as is usual when it comes to motions moved by the Greens, the bigger picture of what the government has achieved and the evidence of the government's commitment to climate reform and environmental protection has been ignored. For example, it's still true that any decision taken by the climate and energy minister when considering coal and gas projects must comply with emissions targets and our net zero commitment. Our climate safeguard laws were introduced to ensure that any new projects emitting over 100,000 tonnes of emissions must cut those emissions by up to 4.9 per cent per year or offset those emissions. This also applies to the 215 largest polluting sites in Australia and acts as a five-year rolling cap.

The government's whole environmental and energy transition framework is concentrated on locating an appropriate balance, which requires the climate minister to assess whether new fossil fuel developments are consistent with the goal of bringing down industrial emissions. That was the point of the safeguard mechanism that we developed with the Greens and the Independents. In that vein, it is clear to everyone that our transition to net zero emissions and renewable energy is a massive job. Transitioning smoothly towards meeting our targets is an economic challenge, as well as an environmental one. Getting to 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030 is still the government's commitment, and that shows Labor is serious about addressing climate change.

But, of course, the necessary transition can't happen overnight. Nevertheless, we have ramped up approval of renewable projects, which have almost doubled, with 104 projects in the pipeline to date. In fact, just this week, the government approved the biggest battery project in Asia, and a few weeks ago a massive new solar farm at Smoky Creek in Queensland was given the green light, which will produce enough power for around 200,000 households, with a million megawatts of more power entering the grid. These are just two of 37 renewable energy projects that have been approved since Labor came to office and acted quickly to renew the Commonwealth's focus on our renewable energy transition. In relation to the transition, I acknowledge that in the recent past things haven't moved as quickly as some would hope, but the sad fact is that we have had more than a decade of political fighting that has cost us much in our energy transition and action on climate change. Because of the infighting in the coalition and the single-mindedness of the Greens, emissions have been higher for longer and the delivery of certainty for renewable energy projects looking to invest in upscaling clean energy was set back.

In their time in government, the coalition had 22 failed energy policies, which got us nowhere. They harboured in their party, and still do harbour, climate denialists who would happily see all our good work on climate change undermined and reversed. Of course, how could we forget the greatest betrayal of all when it came to the climate future of Australians, when the Greens and the coalition teamed up to sink Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme when we were last in government? It was a tragic moment for our nation when the odd bedfellows of the coalition and the Greens got together to sink a good policy which by now would have prevented more than 80 million tonnes of emissions being released into the atmosphere.

After this decade of lost policy and missed opportunities, Australians rightly had had a gutful and chose to elect a Labor government in 2022. We acted almost immediately to implement our ambitious climate agenda, including capping emissions, legislating net zero and reshaping the tone of the debate around climate policy in Australia to acknowledge that the economic challenges of transitioning our country towards renewable energy were something we could no longer shy away from. It is in that spirit that the government will continue to act, striking the balance and building the framework for a clean energy future where fossil fuel developments are held up to the light and measured against our legislated targets and renewable energy commitments. The agenda of renewable energy development and ending the climate wars will rightly be at the forefront of the government's agenda now and in the future.