Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment (Using New Technologies to Fight Climate Change) Bill 2023. This bill proposes to establish a regulatory system enabling carbon dioxide to be pumped into Australia's seabed through a technology known as carbon capture and storage. The bill also allows the government to create a regulatory system to place waste into the sea for scientific research purposes—for example, research into ocean fertilisation, which aims to remove carbon dioxide from the ocean.

Reading the explanatory memorandum to this bill, you might think that carbon capture is a proven technology. But carbon capture has a long history of failure. Australia's only working carbon capture and storage project, off the coast of Western Australia, is a failure. Unable to capture carbon in the geological structures below Barrow Island, Chevron is forced to buy carbon credits to meet its environmental approvals. The fact is that most carbon capture projects which are not associated with enhancing oil recovery will fail. Even if the carbon dioxide can be injected underground, there is no guarantee that it will stay there and not leak into the atmosphere. The most common use of carbon capture projects is to justify new oil and gas projects, and to support carbon trading. The accounting rules in this space disadvantage countries which are rich in oil or gas, like Australia. At this point it is worth recalling the New Zealand government's part in the climate fraud by using carbon credits. The report Climate cheats details how New Zealand became the largest purchaser of fraudulent carbon credits from Ukraine and then used them to meet emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto protocol.

This bill is yet another step down the road to climate change lunacy. The drivel coming out of these senators is mind-blowing. Labor, the Greens, the Nationals and the Liberals are hellbent on sacrificing Australia on the altar of net zero, when Senator Wong couldn't even explain what net zero means. They lie to us, telling us that reducing Australia's carbon dioxide emissions will save the planet. It won't. It's a load of claptrap to push UN agreements and to grab votes by peddling fear. Even if you could reduce Australia's emissions to absolute zero overnight, China will replace them inside 12 months, yet we continue to allow carbon-intensive Chinese imports. They lie to us, saying that renewables are cheaper, when in fact they are directly responsible for Australian households being forced to pay some of the highest electricity bills in the world. These electricity bills are the biggest component in the rising cost of living that is reducing Australia's living standards and forcing many families into poverty and homelessness.

The cult of climate change focuses only on human CO2 emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, was formed to look only at human emissions. There is no focus and almost no reporting on the fact that 97 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide comes from natural sources, like volcanoes. There are a reported one million volcanoes under our oceans around the world. There is no focus on the natural forces which primarily drive climate change on earth, such as solar cycles, interglacial warming periods and fluctuations in the planet's axial tilt. People are being punished for emissions which are not theirs.

Despite the clear evidence that climate policies are driving the cost-of-living crisis while doing literally nothing to save the planet, Labor is pushing them further with this legislation. Labor is desperate to enable its 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030 policy and achieve a 43 per cent cut to Australia's CO2 in the same time frame. The Treasurer has already warned that this will require more drastic interventions by government. I say that government intervention is what has mainly led to the 300 per cent increase in our energy costs since renewables began to pollute our energy landscape. More government invention is only going to make things worse and make energy cost even more than it already does.

Here's the challenge for the Greens, Nationals, Liberals and Labor: if renewables are cheaper and better, as you claim, why subsidise them with billions of taxpayer dollars every year? Why are we subsidising them? It's like anyone who starts up a business. You go out there and do the best they can. You survive with the article that you've got to sell. Why are we subsidising them to the tune of billions of dollars? If it's so good, then the public will buy it. But we've got to prop it up, and that's the problem that we have, and that's the reason for the increasing tax dollars. You're going to put this country and future generations into so much debt. What for? If renewables are so good, why isn't there a level playing field?

The fact is that they're terrible, which is why they need so much taxpayer money to be competitive. They're material-intensive technologies requiring massive land footprints that have led to native species and vegetation in Australia being bulldozed for wind and solar farms. Once they reach the end of their short lifespans, they all end up in landfill because none of it can be recycled. No-one has come up with a plan to get rid of the solar panels. No-one has come up with a plan to get rid of the wind turbines. You can't use the materials. No-one has come up with that plan. You're doing more damage to our environment by just putting them into the ground, but no-one has answered that question. It's alright to import them all from China, with all their carbon emissions that we're taking responsibility for. We're buying their products, yet you have no answers.

I have not heard one member in this place say what needs to be done to get rid of the solar panels or the wind turbines. And you talk about the environment! My God, you're clearing thousands and thousands of hectares of land to put them up. You're destroying the environment for the flora and fauna, but no-one talks about that, either. You don't want to call out the elephant in the room, do you? So you blame it all on climate change. As I said, once they reach the end of their short lifespans, they all end up in landfill because none of it can be recycled. The Greens have talked about money in the coffers of the Labor Party. What about their own coffers, filled from their fearmongering about 'global boiling' now? It was 'global warming' and then 'climate change'; now we're going to 'global boiling'. We need to keep changing it all the time to keep it turning over for the younger generations. We've heard it for years, so we've got to move on from there. We've got to give it a new name so that we keep the interest of the youth that are being brainwashed. Some of the coldest temperatures around the world in over 100 years have been recorded this week, so where's your global boiling? We've had some of the coldest temperatures since the early 1900s, and you're talking about global boiling. Again, this is fearmongering.

Greens Senator Pocock says that the science is clear. There is no science! Where's the science? It's all built on computer models and the lies of climate soothsayers told for their own financial gain and ego inflation. Remember when Tim Flannery told us that our dams would never be full again? Does anyone raise that one? For centuries, prophets of doom have been declaring the world would come to an end, and the climate change nuts have brought this nonsense into the 21st century.

They say fires, floods and cyclones driven by climate change will limit food availability. What an absolute joke! You're limiting food availability by putting transmission lines over farms. You are actually limiting it because you haven't built any dams for water security. Fires? Fires have been happening on this planet and in this country for thousands upon thousands of years. So don't tell me climate change is all due to fires. You have the arsonists out there that set the fires. And you talk about floods. When you build cities on rivers and creeks that used to take the water away, when you've got concrete and bitumen that is in the expanse of thousands of square kilometres of land, where is the water supposed to go? When you don't put in the drainage that's required, it's poor planning. That's what it has been all about. It's also poor planning to build houses right beside rivers that we know in the past have actually flooded. Flooding has happened for centuries and always will, but it's due to poor planning by people, whether it's state, federal or local governments, and you blame it on climate change. And then there are cyclones. We've had fewer cyclones happen, but, no, let's go out and fearmonger and say that this is all happening.

You talk about flora and fauna. Flora and fauna have been destroyed by the wild animals that we have. No-one talks about the destruction that the millions of wildcats, the donkeys, the camels and the brumbies are making; let's blame it on climate change. What a scam! You're an absolute joke in this place; you really are. Members of this parliament, you are easily led yes-people that follow the party line purely to keep your seats in this place. You're pathetic. You're not talking common sense here. You're all like sheep led to the slaughter, and you're taking the Australian people with you. There's no true science here. You're feeding a lot of rubbish to the Australian people. The Australian people are not stupid. They know. People of the older generation have seen the changes in the climate. If you read up on history, it's happened for millions and millions of years, and yet you are pinning it on climate change. That's a real shame.

We are at the heart of this nation to make decisions for the wellbeing of people, and they're struggling out there. They're struggling because they can't pay their bills. The electricity costs are soaring. Because of the rising electricity costs, food is more expensive. We're destroying our farming sector. We're destroying everything in this nation, and yet you keep doing bloody deals with China. You keep doing deals with them. You buy all their goods and bring them into the country. Their emissions are over 30 per cent. Ours are at one per cent, if not less, and you're ridiculing and destroying the Australian people and their businesses—for what? To peddle it because you've brainwashed the kids through the educational system for however long to have them come through and believe that the world's plants have been destroyed.

You know what you need to concentrate on? Getting the rubbish out of the oceans. That is true pollution. Go and talk to China about all the rubbish they're allowing into the oceans from the north and flowing down here. That's where you need to focus. That's the real damage that's being done to our environment and also to marine life. But, no, we don't hear about that. It's absolutely disgraceful. You're led by the UN and all these other organisations that are pushing their own agenda, and you've used it as a political ploy to get your votes from the Australian people. That's what it's about. The Australian people follow you because you told the kids in school, 'This is the way it is.' There's no critical thinking. There's no debate. You haven't got to science. Senator Roberts would welcome a debate with Senator Waters. Guess what: she hasn't done it, because she wouldn't be able to answer his questions. She's not up to it. It's alright to stand here and say, 'You're fearmongering,' and all the rest of it, but you're not prepared to stand there and have a debate with someone who knows what they're talking about. It's all fearmongering.

It's the politicians around the world, as I said. What's destroying food production is politicians around the world destroying our farming sector in the insane quest to get rid of carbon dioxide. Wind turbines, transmission lines and solar panels are doing more damage to our planet than carbon dioxide ever will. We are allowing our children to be brainwashed into this lunatic cult in our schools and universities due to a lack of critical thinking and debate being discouraged. I hear from so many students that, if you don't go along with the ideology of the university, you get marked down and you won't get passed in your studies. Is that really what you want from the future generations of this nation—that they can't really debate or think for themselves but have to be guided and told how to answer the questions? I feel sorry for the future generations, and it is the people in this place and in parliaments around the nation who have allowed this to happen because of gutless wonders who won't be individuals and stand up not only for the people of this nation but for their own families and for future generations. You are so worried about your own jobs in this place that you haven't got the intestinal fortitude to actually speak the truth and speak out on behalf of the Australian people. Well, I will keep speaking out on behalf of these people who actually have proven this and the science that goes with it. I am not against renewables by any means, but don't do the fearmongering that says the planet is coming to an end, because that is a lie.