Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the Climate Change Authority's Sector pathways review 2024 and add my support to the comments of the colleagues who have gone before me. This review considered the pathways for six sectors—agriculture and land, built environment, electricity and energy, industry and waste, and transport and resources—to decarbonise. The review found that there are many pathways to achieve emissions reduction, with existing, mature technologies such as solar and wind for electricity generation and batteries for energy storage getting Australia much of the way to net zero. Opportunities also exist with the rapid development of emerging low-emissions technologies such as hydrogen and engineered carbon removals.

While this review is encouraging, I do not have hope that the Labor government will act on its findings. Since Labor have been in government, we have seen them continue to approve new coal and gas mines. We have seen them attempt to water down proposed environmental legislation and dodge any responsibility for this climate crisis. We are in the midst of a climate emergency. Without an urgent reduction in our carbon emissions, we risk catastrophe. To do nothing is to risk everything. You only need to be reminded of that when bushfire survivors for climate action come through your office and tell you about losing everything, from their homes and their livelihoods to their friends.

Earlier this year, the Labor government released its Future Gas Strategy, where it talked up the crucial role of gas through to and beyond 2050. What kind of a sick joke is this? And then, on forests, the report highlights the importance of protecting forests as vital carbon sinks. Australia's native forests are unique and beautiful and home to some of our most iconic wildlife. They are unceded country for traditional owners, with precious totems and songlines woven through them. Despite that, Labor and Liberal governments have permitted and overseen decades of native forest logging that destroys our environment and releases over 11 million tonnes of carbon each year. Any path to decarbonisation must include an end to native forest logging.

I want to touch on an issue close to my heart in this discussion around decarbonisation, which is the Pacific islands. I recently had the opportunity to join a climate focused parliamentary delegation, with Save the Children, to Vanuatu. The delegation travelled through the country. We met with families, communities and village chiefs to learn about some of the positive impacts of Australia's financial aid, but, more importantly, the climate catastrophe and the impact it has on their ability to sustain their livelihoods and continue to stay on the land where they have lived for generations and generations. They spoke about the immense grief they're experiencing in already having to move away from areas and in losing the language, culture and traditions that their ancestors have passed on to them for generations. We visited a hospital where water is now lapping at the doorstep because of rising sea levels. What the government describes as our Pacific family is astounded that, in the face of this climate ruin and of them being designated climate refugees from their own countries, our government is approving new coal and gas projects and fuelling the fire, the floods, the storm surges and the sea level rise.

Today I ask: when will the Labor government learn that new coal and gas projects are a pathway to environmental collapse? When will the Labor government learn that doing deals with the coalition to weaken our national environmental laws is exactly the opposite of what is needed to avoid mass extinction? When will it learn that, unless it starts to show leadership on climate and biodiversity protection to rule out new coal and gas projects, protect our forests and create a pathway to a hundred per cent clean and renewable energy, it is doomed to career towards electoral oblivion.

The time for climate action is now. The time for climate leadership is now. No more weasel words, no more faux outrage from backbenchers fighting for their political lives—it is time for true, meaningful climate action: an end to coal and gas, an end to native forest logging and giving us a bit of hope that future generations can live and raise families on a safe planet.