Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator McAllister, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) acknowledges Prime Minister Scott Morrison's extraordinary rebuke of New South Wales Minister for Energy and Environment and fellow Liberal, Mr Matt Kean MP, for suggesting federal Liberals are pushing the Morrison Government to increase its ambition on emissions reduction;

(b) notes that Prime Minister Morrison told ABC's AM program in response to Minister Kean's comments: "Matt Kean doesn't know what he's talking about, he doesn't know what's going on in the federal cabinet [and] most of the federal cabinet wouldn't even know who Matt Kean was";

(c) acknowledges the support of federal Liberals, including North Sydney MP Mr Trent Zimmerman, for increased emissions reduction;

(d) further notes:

  (i) Mr Zimmerman's quote in the Fairfax-Nine newspapers that: "Australians want us to get on with the job of meeting our Paris emissions but looking at what more we can do to reduce our emissions further",

  (ii) that despite Prime Minister Morrison repeatedly declaring Australia will "meet and beat" its international emission reductions obligations that:

     (A) the Government's own emissions data confirms Australia will not meet our Kyoto commitment to cut emissions by 5% next year on 2000 levels by 2020,

     (B) the Government's own data suggests our emissions will come down by less than 5% over the next 10 years, and

     (C) at the Government's current rate of emissions reduction it will take Australia 230 years to reach net zero emissions, rather than the 30 years scientists tell us is necessary; and

(e) calls on the Prime Minister to stop fudging the numbers and show some leadership, control the civil war within the Coalition over climate action, and finally put in place a policy that will reduce Australia's emissions.

Question agreed to.