Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion 848.

Leave granted.

I, and also on behalf of Senator Whish-Wilson, move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) the Bureau of Meteorology has advised that Australia will face 3.4 to 4.4 degrees of heating by the turn of the century, and that the latest science indicates an approximate 20% increase in the number of days per year with dangerous fire weather conditions per degree of global heating,

  (ii) more than 20% of mainland Australia's forests burned during the 2019-20 bushfires, a globally unprecedented figure,

  (iii) a recent study by Dietzel et al. (2020) found that since the mid-1990s, coral along the Great Barrier Reef has declined by more than 50%, showing the ability of the reef to recover is compromised, and

  (iv) the values that underpin the World Heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef and many of Australia's forests are currently at serious risk from global heating; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

  (i) act urgently to tackle the climate crisis, consistent with keeping global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and

  (ii) set an emissions reduction target for 2030 that is significantly more ambitious than Australia's existing commitment of a 26 to 28% reduction.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia has an enviable track record of meeting and beating our international emissions reductions commitments. We've beaten our Kyoto-era targets by up to 430 million tonnes and we're on track to meet our 2030 target. These are achievements Australians can be proud of. Climate change is a global problem requiring a global solution. That is why the Paris Agreement aims to achieve global net zero in the second half of the century. As a signatory, Australia is committed to that goal and, as the PM has said, we want to achieve that goal as soon as possible.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One Nation does not support this motion. One Nation supports policies that are based on empirical scientific evidence. Without robust scientific evidence, policies are not worth the paper they're written on. By avoiding robust scientific evidence to support policies, politicians are able to base policies on their political and ideological whims and vested interests. As we recently learned, the CSIRO, which advises the government on climate science, has been caught out relying on discredited scientific papers and unvalidated models as the basis for advice to government on climate policy.

The Liberal-Nationals and the Labor-Greens have no empirical evidence that the production of human carbon dioxide is affecting the climate and needs to be cut. Until there is, all climate policies need to be scrapped. I remind the Senate that this is day 419 since I first challenged the Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate to provide the evidence and to debate me, and 7 October marks a decade since I first challenged her to debate me, and she has not fronted after immediately refusing.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that motion No. 848 be agreed to.