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

Anyone who is paying attention knows that we are in the midst of a climate emergency. Floods, fires and heatwaves are intensifying, and the window for action is closing fast. Right now in my home state of Victoria, huge fire fronts are being fought in the Grampians and in Little Desert. Firefighters, farmers and emergency services have been working around the clock in hot, unpredictable conditions. We also had a hot December. People might remember that it got to a whopping 47 degrees in the Mallee.

Rapid decarbonisation isn't a choice; it's a necessity. The Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024 is a step towards this essential transition. This bill encourages investment in renewable hydrogen and critical minerals and expands the remit of Indigenous Business Australia. The Greens welcome government support for clean energy industries and support this bill's intent. Australia has the potential to become a renewable energy superpower. Schemes like the tax credits proposed in this bill are important for creating market confidence and encouraging the investment needed for us to live up to this potential. By supporting renewable hydrogen and the growth of critical minerals, this bill has the potential to boost our economy and create sustainable jobs. The Greens welcome steps towards the renewable transition and support efforts to help workers and communities on the way.

But let's be very clear: we cannot fight the fire while continuing to pour fuel on it. Every new coal and gas project that Labor approves takes us further away from a safe climate future. The biggest cause of global warming is the mining, transporting and burning of fossil fuels—that is, coal, oil and gas, as I'm sure everyone in here knows. Scientists agree that the phasing out of fossil fuels is the No. 1 task to halt our planet from cooking and that there can be no new coal or gas projects if we are to avoid climate collapse. But, instead of acting, Labor has green-lit over 30 new coal and gas projects since being elected in 2022. The Albanese government has also committed to a future for gas beyond 2050 in their future gas strategy—2050!—and continues to pour billions of taxpayer dollars into sustaining these polluting industries, including the widely condemned and dangerous Middle Arm precinct.

Rather than embracing a truly renewable future, Labor is locking in decades of pollution and accelerating the climate crisis. While Labor have their heads in the sand, the world is reeling from the climate emergency. Last year marked the hottest year on record and the first time ever that the earth's temperature topped 1.5 degrees of global warming, pushing the world further and further into climate catastrophe and away from our international agreements. Meanwhile, in my home state of Victoria, fires ravaged homes, communities and wildlife in the west, destroying precious flora and fauna in the Grampians and shutting down local tourism. At the same time, homes are being destroyed in Melbourne and Geelong by extreme winds and storms. All the while, people across the state are dealing with crippling heatwaves without proper insulation or air-conditioning in their rentals and homes. And, when disaster strikes, Australians aren't just left to pick up the pieces; they're paying the price for Labor's inaction.

Instead of protecting people from the worsening impacts of climate change, the Albanese government is fuelling the crisis, approving new coal and gas projects while leaving communities to face rising insurance costs, lost homes and financial ruin. Meanwhile, insurance premiums are skyrocketing, up to 400 per cent in some areas. In Halls Gap, business are finding themselves uninsurable due to risk.

Insurance companies are raking in profits and making it impossible for people to insure their homes. Climate risk, fuelled by coal and gas corporations, has broken our insurance system, and it's people in disaster-prone regions who are paying the price. Families already crushed by rising costs face an impossible choice: protect their homes or put food on the table. This is not just a crisis of affordability; it's a crisis of climate failure, and it is entirely preventable.

This crisis is personal for me. Growing up in regional Victoria and now living on the shores of Port Phillip Bay, the climate crisis directly threatens my communities, my family and my home. Each year the Labor and Liberals approve and support the expansion of new coal, the risk of rising sea levels, storm surges and fire grows. Meanwhile, fossil fuel giants rake in billions, fuelling disasters that break our insurance system. And what do our governments do? They reward polluters.

In the 2022-23 financial year alone, Australian federal and state governments handed out $14½ billion in fossil fuel subsidies, a 31 per cent increase from the previous year—$14½ billion in fossil fuel subsidies, $14½ billion in fuelling the climate crisis. This is money that could have gone to disaster relief, affordable insurance and climate adaptation. Instead, it's going straight to the pockets of coal and gas executives, who knowingly worsen the climate crisis.

Let's be clear. This isn't just a Labor problem; the Liberals spent nearly a decade in power dismantling climate policy and making Australia more vulnerable to climate disasters. They gutted funding for our climate resilience programs, ignored repeated warnings from experts and tried to block real action at every single turn. When Scott Morrison waved around a lump of coal in parliament, he was sending a message: the Liberals will always side with fossil fuel companies over the interests of Australian people.

The cost of this failure is real. In 2022, Australians claimed over $7 billion in home insurance, almost double the previous record, after floods devastated communities across the east coast. In response, insurance premiums jumped by 14 per cent nationwide, the biggest rise in a decade. In high risk areas, some families are being priced out of coverage altogether. What happens when their homes are destroyed? The government will come and say, 'We can't afford to help,' but they can afford to hand billions of dollars into big coal and gas corporations in the form of subsidies, and it is a disgrace.

Australians shouldn't have to bear the cost of a climate crisis they didn't create. It's time to make polluters pay. A levy on coal and gas companies could fund affordable insurance, disaster recovery and resilience projects that actually protect our communities. Because here's the reality: ending new coal and gas projects isn't just about cutting emissions; it's about our survival. It's about ensuring that, when disasters strike, people aren't left homeless, drowning in debt or forced to rebuild from nothing. Australia's future is in clean energy, not in fossil fuels. And a future made in Australia agenda done right is an opportunity to replace our coal and gas exports with green energy and products manufactured right here in Australia.

As I said, the Greens support the intent of this bill. It's an important measure to reduce barriers for green industries and set Australia up as a renewable energy superpower. But the Labor government needs to stop sending mixed signals. If the government really wants the critical minerals sector to succeed, it will stop backing new coal and gas projects, because they're going to be competing for the same workers and competing for investment as well as fast tracking climate collapse. Australians deserve better.

With more Greens in parliament, they can get better. Unlike Labor and the coalition, the Greens do not take dirty donations from industries like coal and gas. And we are not beholden to the vested interest of billionaires and corporations, and I think this is a theme that's going to run through many speeches this week as we see the massive donations that have been given by the coal and gas lobby, from the gambling industry and from a multitude of other multinational corporations that are funding the major parties, demonstrating to the Australian community their willingness to protect those vested interests over representing everyday Australians. That is why the Greens is the only political party to have a clear plan to phase out of coal and gas and stop fossil fuel subsidies. We know that any effort to reduce the burden of the climate crisis on people and communities is futile without real action to stop fossil fuel corporations. The Greens are proud to have secured significant amendments to the Future Made in Australia bills last year to ensure that no support will be provided to coal, oil and gas under the regime, and commercial investments and programs for Export Finance Australia.

Just imagine what we can do with more Greens elected to parliament. We could keep the coalition out of government and hold Labor to account for their broken promises, and for the nature positive laws that completely abandoned the environment in this term of parliament, once again, due to their vested interests. We could push them to actually take real action on climate change, or deliver on nature reforms they promised last election but today have gutlessly scrubbed from the legislative agenda. More Greens in parliament would mean more representatives who listen and vote based on the needs of the people, not profits. So Australia, if you are sick of voting for the same two parties and getting the same result, vote Greens at the next election, and help us to deliver meaningful action to protect our precious climate and precious biodiversity in this country.