Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, south and southeast Australia experienced a severe drop in average rainfall with the highest October temperatures ever recorded, leading to high vulnerability to fire danger;

(b) recognises that these conditions are consistent with climate change projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and have not been attributed to El Niño, but that these conditions will continue with a 70 per cent likelihood they will be worsened by El Niño in coming months; and

(c) calls on the Government to reduce Australia's vulnerability to extreme weather by taking urgent action to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions at the source and contribute fairly to the global effort to limit warming to 2 degrees.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government knows that the Greens are unwilling to accept that Australia is taking action to address climate change. We have delivered on our election commitment to scrap Labor's carbon tax, delivering the largest reduction in household electricity prices on record. We are also delivering on our election commitment to establish the Emissions Reduction Fund with $2.55 billion available in the 2014 budget. The Emissions Reduction Fund will support practical projects to reduce emissions without pushing up prices. This includes more than 170 existing projects across farming, waste and revegetation. These are the sorts of projects that the Greens should be supporting.

We are also playing our part in an effective international response to climate change through direct action, international engagement and our aid program.

Question agreed to.