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

I'll offer a response to the contributions from Senator Pocock and Senator Hanson-Young in relation to the amendment that's before us. We don't support the amendments on sheet 2151. Narrowing the application of this legislation would actually prevent Australia from meeting its obligations under the London protocol. The London protocol doesn't distinguish the source of carbon dioxide that might be transported from one jurisdiction to another. It applies to any such transport, and our obligation, if we're to meet the requirements under the treaty, would be to create a framework that would allow environmental impact assessments and a range of other risk assessments in relation to all such movements.

Both Senator Pocock and Senator Hanson-Young have reprised the arguments that they've already made over the last six days of debate. I think the clear thing is that the Greens and Senator Pocock have a view about how we should get to net zero by 2050. These arguments, incidentally, were canvassed in the safeguard debate and have been canvassed regularly at estimates as well. The government has a very clear pathway by which we seek to reduce the emissions in the Australian economy. It is the safeguard mechanism—