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

The Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment (Using New Technologies to Fight Climate Change) Bill 2023 is deeply flawed. The whole premise of this bill is deeply flawed. Far from protecting the environment or acting on climate change, it is an attempt at greenwashing the fossil fuel industry and the expansion of, particularly, the gas industry.

Every leading organisation around the globe focused on climate action, the United Nations, the International Energy Agency and many foreign governments acknowledge that we cannot continue to expand fossil fuels if we are to arrest the most dangerous elements of climate change. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, has belled the cat and said how dangerous it is for governments to pretend, like the Albanese government is trying to do here today, that unproven technology like carbon capture and storage is a silver bullet and a get-out-of-jail-free card for the fossil fuel industry. It's simply not, and Antonio Guterres says it bluntly. It is dubious science. It is all about the fossil fuel industry with their foot on the throat of government, and they are the ones calling the shots.

The only reason a government or a parliament, in our instance, would be facilitating a piece of legislation like this is if either we are blind to the fact that this is what the fossil fuel industry needs to and wants to pretend that it can continue, as business as usual, or we are wilfully willing to facilitate it. It's only one of two options. Either you think the fossil fuel industry has a right to continue to burn and cook the planet, or you've been hoodwinked by the fossil fuel industry. Which one is it? Could the minister please explain to the chamber whether the Albanese government has been hoodwinked by the fossil fuel industry, or are you just doing their bidding for them?