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

Senator Pocock, I'm not sure if we were here for the same debate in relation to the safeguard mechanism, but my recollection, and I think the Hansard will confirm this, is that there was a quite explicit discussion about the emissions obligations that would be placed on new gas projects, and those limitations were aligned with international best practice and would require those covered entities to reduce their emissions.

There are a range of pathways, as was well canvassed in the Senate debate about how that might happen. One option, of course, is the purchase of offsets. Senator Pocock, I recall you taking a keen interest in ensuring that the offsets that would be available for purchase under that scheme would be sufficiently robust. The other option, of course, is technologies to reduce the emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere from projects of this kind. I have been very clear in the debate so far—and, indeed, so has the government more generally—that this legislation represents one part of our broader efforts, which have been widely telegraphed, to ensure that the regulatory arrangements for carbon capture and storage projects are up to scratch.

This is one part of it, and I will reiterate the point that we have an international obligation to do it. We've signed on to an international protocol that says that, where these projects proceed, we absolutely should regulate them, we should require an environmental assessment, we should require parties to come to a mutual agreement about the movement of carbon dioxide across national borders and we should require the highest standards of assessment, by both exporting parties and importing parties, should projects of this kind proceed.

I'll conclude with this final point, which is that this is a really difficult transition that we're making to 2050. When I look at it, I think about our national economy, I think about our energy security, I think about our region, I think about our international energy partners—their transition and the way that we support them in the transition that they are also seeking to make and the commitments they have made under international treaties to reduce their own carbon emissions—and I think about the development requirements of neighbours in the Pacific and in the Southeast Asian region more broadly and their interests in pursuing development opportunities.

My conclusion is that the legislation before us is one part of a very large policy agenda that is required to support not just Australia's transition towards net zero by 2050 but the transitions that are underway in our region as well. I understand that there are senators in this place who seek to characterise this in a way that is inconsistent with the material before them, because it supports a particular political position, but I actually think this is a really serious set of economic questions that we're grappling with and that our economic partners are grappling with. It's a transition of consequence for current and future generations the world over. So I'll put it to you that what's before us is consistent with a responsible, deliberate and determined attempt to support not only the transition of our economy towards net zero but also the transition of the economies of our partners.