Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, we're done. We're out of an agenda, and we're out of anything to do. It's only been about 260 days since the election, and the government has got nothing left in the tank. They're the 'Jacinda Ardern government' now—they've got nothing left in the tank.

I should explain to people listening, or in the gallery, that we're now back to what's called the Address-in-Reply. This is the debate about the address that was provided by the Governor-General back in July last year. So seven-odd months ago the Governor-General came here and outlined the government's agenda, and there's been a little bit of a debate afterwards from us about that speech that occurred. Normally we'll do a little bit of that in the two or three weeks after the new parliament opens, as the government gets—especially a new government—it's legislative agenda going. It's pretty rare for us to come back to it seven months later. You'd think there'd be other things going on.

We can only hazard a guess here that the new Labor government doesn't think there is anything that needs fixing in our country right now, because it has no legislation before us. It has nothing for us to debate or talk about. We've got to go back to this time filler. This is like being at school: when the teacher runs out of things to do, she'll put on a documentary or something to bide time until the bell goes. That's what's happening here. We're filling time.

We're still getting paid by you guys up there; you're still paying us, but the government has nothing for us to do. I've got more bills than the government seems to have. I've got bills I've put in this week. I've got bills to end vaccine mandates, to give people their jobs back, ridiculous unscientific mandates that still exist. I've got a bill to legalise nuclear energy. Let's debate that. Let's bring that bill on and debate actually about how we can lower energy prices for Australians and guarantee manufacturing jobs. But, no, the government has no agenda. It must think there's nothing out there that needs to be fixed.

I don't know what those in the government have been spending their summers doing. Over the summer I've been home. I've spent a lot of time in Central Queensland driving around the country to various things I needed to, and I've been speaking to people. There are a lot of people hurting right now. It's very, very tough. With interest rates surging, people's mortgage repayments have increased. For the average mortgage, we're looking at $1,000 more a month. Petrol prices are high. Grocery prices are continuing to increase and not slowing down. Today we learnt that box prices are going up, as well as cement, concrete. That's going to feed into construction costs for everything that's built in this country.

It's really tough for people, so why don't we have some legislation here to debate to help people with the cost of living? Why don't we have bills here right now on, as I said, nuclear energy, to help power prices come down? Do something! Let's have a debate about that. Instead, we're filling time. The government is spinning wheels. It doesn't know what to do.

I think at the next sitting period this might be rectified. There are some bills before committees at the moment. The government has a bill to weaponise a thing called a safeguard mechanism. They're going to create a big new tax on the Australian people. So, as I said, I think the biggest issue for people right now is living costs. We need to help people survive day to day, keep them in their home, keep the banks at bay and away from knocking on the door. That's what we should be debating. Instead the government is going to bring forward, probably in the next sitting week, a bill to impose a huge new tax on Australians and the Australian economy. They want to make 215 businesses in Australia—some of the businesses that create the most jobs and wealth for our country. They want to create a tax, making these 215 businesses have to pay a multibillion-dollar bill to reduce their carbon emissions while the rest of the world builds coalmines, power stages and LNG terminals in Europe. We're going to make our businesses pay. Jobs will be lost, and, ultimately, Australian consumers will pay for those higher costs.

Of those 215 businesses, two of them are our last two oil refineries. I think we should try to keep our oil refineries in this country. In fact, the former coalition government helped keep them alive in the COVID crisis, which was almost existential for those oil refineries, but we helped them; we provided them support to keep the capacity here in Australia so we could continue to provide an essential product to Australian business and families.

Instead the new government has come in, and it's going to impose a tax on our last two oil refineries, the one in Lytton, east of Brisbane, and the other in Geelong. They're going to put a tax on those two refineries. That's going to flow through to your petrol prices. If you think they're already high, if you think they're high enough, the Labor government doesn't think they're high enough. The Labor government wants to put petrol prices higher through this big new tax.

This big new tax on the 215 businesses includes Qantas and Virgin. Qantas and Virgin are on the list of the 215 businesses. They're going to have to pay tax. For anyone who's had to fly recently, those prices are high. They certainly haven't come back to their pre-COVID levels. Prices are very high to fly around the country or the world. That's going to be higher because they'll have to pay this tax. What are Qantas and Virgin going to do? Of course they're going to pass that on to you—pass that on to consumers. That's going to make it even tougher for Australian families in this country.

The public transit authorities in New South Wales and Victoria are also on the list of those 215 businesses. They're on the list because the bus networks use diesel. There are some electric buses out there, but they still use a lot of diesel. And they're now in the gun of Labor's big new carbon tax. They're going to have to pay the tax. That means higher fares, on public transport as well, for Australian families.

I read today in the paper that New South Wales Labor's political director has had to give a speech to the Labor caucus this week. His name escapes me at the moment, but he has had to come in to the Labor caucus this week and remind Labor's members of parliament that what they should be focusing on is the cost of living. Why did they need that reminder? Wouldn't they be out there talking to people? Instead—

Well, he's had to remind you, because all I've seen from this government over the last few months are things like the Voice and issues like climate change. They seem obsessed by absolute distractions that don't go to the realities that Australian families are facing right now. That's why you've had to have your director come in and remind you all: 'Hey, hey—maybe we should talk a little bit less about the Voice. Most people don't know what that is. Most people think it's a reality TV show. Talk a little bit less about that. Maybe we should talk about Australian families. Maybe we should talk a little bit less about our naive ambitions to somehow change the temperature of the globe and focus on how we can make families' budgets work.'

Obviously, the government is not focused on that right now, given that they have not any piece of legislation here for us to debate. Not a single piece of legislation is live and active right now for these Australian families. As I say, I and other senators on the coalition side have bills ready to go. Let's bring those on so that we can do something for the Australian people and for our wages right now, rather than spin our wheels as the government is doing in the Senate at the moment.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 21 May 2022 Australians voted for a better future: a future of reform to create a fairer Australia—an Australia which builds people up and supports families, and a stronger future for all Australians so they can get ahead and there are opportunities for all.

However, before I talk more about Labor's plan for a better and fairer Australia and about what we have achieved thus far within the first nine months of government, I must speak about what should be unspeakable. The man who broke the Liberal Party's heart—the former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison—and those opposite should hang their heads in shame. The former government will be remembered for the lengths that they would go to to trash our institutions and conventions for their own selfish political ends and to try and trash our democracy and abuse relationships between the government of the day and the people of Australia, the Australian media and the Australian Public Service.

I think Australians all breathed a sigh of relief on election night when the government was defeated. The former PM was effectively running a shadow government that his ministers and government MPs and senators did not know about, let alone the people of Australia. But some people, including those opposite, would have heard rumours. They would have known what was happening.

Mr Morrison had turned into a national joke, and rightly so. He was a Prime Minister who couldn't keep his word, let alone a promise. Australia is a proud Liberal democracy which rightly upholds the highest standards of the Westminster tradition. Now, these principles and conventions were mercilessly ignored by Mr Morrison during his prime ministership. We've continued to witness more proof that Australia deserved so much more than Mr Morrison, in book after book since the time he was in office. While in office, he undermined our democracy, trashed the principles of responsible government, centralised power and knowingly concealed the truth from the media and the Australian people. This was a dark chapter in our country's history; there are no other words to describe it.

Now out of office, Mr Morrison is trying to spin his way out of decisions he made willingly. But history will not forget him. His recent performance at the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme was ample evidence that this man should never have been trusted with the leadership of the Liberal Party, let alone with being Prime Minister of this country. If we as a country do not ensure open and transparent government and restore trust in our public institutions, the people of Australia will become even more disillusioned with our sacred democracy.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those people on the other side are laughing, but these are the same people that could have put the brakes on Scott Morrison. They could have spoken up, but what they did was allow the Prime Minister to continue on, to try to spin his way out of every issue and every resolution that he made to deceive the Australian people. Mr Morrison really did think—and, I'm sure, continues to think—that he can walk between rain drops. The legacy of the Morrison government will surely be represented by Mr Morrison's traits, and all the lies of the former Prime Minister told.

Mr Morrison was a man with no leadership credentials, no principles and no integrity. The problem was that those on the other side never listened to the former minister for tourism when she sacked Scott Morrison because he failed in that responsibility. He was untrustworthy, and what she did was make sure that Tourism Australia was protected from a man who considered himself to be the marketing guru, a man who would never, ever apologise for any mistakes that he made, a man who would do anything for power and do anything to keep it.

Opposition senators interjecting—

I'm surprised my colleagues on the other side of the chamber are very happy and laughing at the fact that he deceived them. If you consider this chamber and say that it was okay that he took on other ministerial positions without actually having the authority to do that—

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley, resume your seat, please. Senator Duniam on a point of order?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Polley is misleading the chamber by suggesting we're laughing and happy. We're amused that she's five minutes into a 15-minute speech and has said nothing about Labor's plan for the country and is obsessed with Scott Morrison.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. I am quite enjoying listening to Senator Polley and I would like to hear her in silence. Senator Polley, continue with this brilliant speech.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're a very good Acting Deputy President. Our country deserves so much better, and that's why the Australian people voted Mr Morrison and the Liberals out—because they were incompetent. It was a chaotic and unprincipled government. They voted you out of office. I know it still hurts being in opposition, but you'll get used to opposition, believe me. It was a government of inaction on policy reform but heavy on incompetence and division, a government with one ministerial scandal after another.

Let's recount what happened during their term in government. Let's talk about the robodebt. Let's talk about those people who took their lives because of the coalition's policy action. Let's talk about the sports rorts. Let's talk about the community grants rorts and the car park rorts. It was a government that was a steward to the crisis in aged care and any meaningful action on climate change. The cost of living was left to fester, and many of those opposite just stood by and allowed that to happen. We know that Australian jobs went offshore. We know wages were left to stagnate. In many circles, dehumanising women and girls was a product of Mr Morrison's government. When Mr Morrison said he didn't hold a hose—I have to say that has been one of the most repeated comments that I have heard in relation to Mr Morrison. That's why he got defeated—because he would not take any responsibility. He was a bulldozer who would do whatever he had to do to stay prime minister and keep control of the Liberal Party.

I can assure you that an Albanese Labor government will never, ever undermine our democracy. We will try only to strengthen it. After a decade of incompetence, Labor has started to clean up the Liberals' and Nationals' mess. After almost a decade in office in my home state of Tasmania, we will be—and we already have demonstrated we are—better off with an Albanese Labor government. Tasmania will get a fair go once more. My community and I are looking forward to when the Albanese Labor government—as we have already committed in the October budget—will deliver on our election commitments in my state of Tasmania. Tasmania, we will deliver on them. These were commitments to create secure local jobs, to ease the cost of living, to create better health outcomes and access to palliative care, cheaper child care, better access to TAFE and training, better-quality aged care and disability care, and jobs in hydrogen and local manufacturing. And what did we have this week? Those in that other place, under Mr Dutton, have voted against bringing manufacturing back to this country. They voted against Australian jobs. That's who those people on the other side represent: the big end of town. They're not interested in moving the economy and growing the manufacturing industry. They learnt nothing at all during COVID and the crisis that we faced by not having the capacity to manufacture the things that keep our economy going because they allowed jobs to go offshore.

From day one, the Albanese Labor government started the job of action and important reform. We have moved away from the wasteful 10 years in practice of the former government. We have ended policy paralysis in this country, and we will reform our country for the better, to create a better future for all Australians. There are significant issues facing our country, including addressing the cost of living, insecure employment and housing stress. What did they do for 10 years in housing? Why is homelessness one of the biggest social issues that we have been combating? We have been left with all the time bombs that those guys left behind. Why is it that the growing cohort of homeless in this country are women over 55? It's because, for 10 years, those guys did absolutely nothing.

We are not ashamed of what we are doing and the social agenda that we're bringing to this parliament. We want Australians to be able to have access to GPs and good health care. We will always fight for more jobs in this country and bringing manufacturing back to Australian shores. The Albanese government is moving forward and we're doing what we can, as we do it methodically, putting pressure on the cost of living to make sure that Australians are supported during what is a global phenomenon after the COVID epidemic and also with what's happening in Ukraine.

Those on the other side are very fond of trying to rewrite history when they come into this chamber, but the reality and the facts speak for themselves. We supported the Fair Work Commission's decision to raise the minimum wage by $40 a week. What did those opposite do when they were in government? Nothing. They allowed wages to stagnate. That's what they did, and they are sitting over there very proud of their record. They're proud of their record.

We supported a wage increase for aged-care workers. Aged-care workers were some of the most underresourced, underrespected, underpaid workers in this country. We've addressed that because those opposite failed when they were in government for 10 years to address that issue.

This government is committed to keeping unemployment low, boosting productivity and ensuring Australia can provide locally made supply chains as we go forward with the changing world that we live in now while unfortunately Europe is facing the hardship and difficulties of war in Ukraine.

What does the future hold and what have we achieved in our first nine months in office? In 2023, so many of our reforms will become reality. Cheaper medicines took effect on 1 January. Cheaper child care will benefit 1.2 million families from 1 July. There are 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. We know over the last decade not only at the federal government level but in my home state of Tasmania the Liberals have tried to defund and run TAFE into the ground. That's why we have a skills shortage in this country—because they don't want to support workers and they don't want to support training and skills and having jobs and manufacturing back in Australia.

Work will begin on new renewable energy projects that will create jobs, boost communities and make sure Australia has a secure, reliable energy supply. I am glad that there has been no interjections from my Liberal Senate colleagues, because they should know how important this is to their and my home state of Tasmania.

Every Australian will have the opportunity to celebrate the privilege we have to share this continent with the world's oldest continuous culture and to vote for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament.

We know there is more work to be done. We are staying focused on building an economy that works for people, not the other way around. Our new year's resolution is the same principle that has driven us since we were elected: don't waste one day; make the most of every day. We have achieved so much in nine months, including cheaper child care for millions of Australian families, cheaper medicines, an increase to the minimum wage, six months of paid parental leave, a policy for net zero by 2050 and paid domestic and family violence leave. These are critical issues to the Australian community. This is about the Australian people.

We're delivering better protection for threatened species, flood relief and the Disaster Ready Fund. That's so important. We're having fires, we're having flood after flood, and they impact not only those individual families but the entire community. They need to be supported. That's what the Albanese government has done. That's why our flood relief and Disaster Ready Fund have been crucial. I'd like to here make comment and congratulate Minister Watt on his contribution since coming to government, which has been driving that relief. It's fantastic to actually have someone now in that area of responsibility that gets it. He gets it, and he's getting on with the job. He's not wasting one day.

We will legislate for a national anticorruption commission, unlike those who for 10 years did nothing and have tried to block that legislation going through. They have not been willing to sit down and have proper consultation and dialogue with us as the government of the day now. But we will always fight for more secure jobs and better pay.

In 2023, we will keep up the good work. We will continue to build the nation so that every Australian has the opportunity in life to get ahead and to succeed. That's what makes up Labor members of parliament and Labor senators. Those are the values which have driven me every single day that I've been in the Senate, and they are why I first joined the Labor Party as a very young person. I believe in the values; I believe that we should walk together, not alone. (Time expired)

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In rising today to speak on the Governor-General's address to this place nine months ago, I want to associate myself with the comments of Senator Canavan regarding how surprised I am for it to be Thursday of the first sitting week back of the year and for the government to have already run out of things to talk about. The reason that we have the address-in-reply is so that we always have something to come back and talk to when we don't have anything else to talk about—when we've run out of legislation. That's why we're on this debate today. It certainly seems fitting, because we know that this government is very big on rhetoric and very small on substance. That's why we are here on the third sitting day back of the year with nothing else to talk about—because they have apparently not got much on the agenda that they want to take through this place.

But speaking of big on rhetoric and small on substance, it would be remiss of me to stand here and contribute to this debate today without making reference to my Tasmanian colleague Senator Polley's contribution, where she spent about 10 minutes obsessing about the previous government and only a small amount of her speech actually talking about what her government is seeking to deliver. I think it's all very symbolic and symptomatic of the fact that this government isn't delivering for Australians—that this government doesn't know how to deliver for Australians. The fact that they are obsessing about what happened in months past, rather than focusing on what they want to deliver for the future should be pretty disappointing to anybody listening in to this debate today.

In compiling my remarks for this debate on the Governor-General's address today, it was interesting to look over the address, some months down the track, for what the government was indicating its priorities were back in July when the parliament first reconvened—to look at what those priorities were then and consider what the government has actually done in the intervening nine months. One of the main areas of focus for the government, according to the Governor-General's address, was the cost of living. This is certainly the top concern of many Australians, particularly in my home state of Tasmania. It seems like, every time you go to the supermarket, there's been another big price hike on a staple grocery item. The basic essentials such as fruit and vegetables, breakfast cereals and meat are all costing families more and eating into the family budgets, and of course we know that the electricity bills are forecast to continue rising dramatically.

These are costs that families can't avoid. We can't live with the lights off. We can't not eat food. So it is absolutely appropriate that tackling the cost of living should be a top priority of this government, and I assumed that that was why it was mentioned in the Governor-General's address to this chamber, yet one of the first actions of this Labor government was to ditch its own promise to bring power bills down by $275. In the election campaign, Mr Albanese said that, under Labor's plan, electricity prices would fall from 2022 levels by $275 per household by 2025. $275 off your power bill is a very attractive proposition for many voters, who are dealing with tight household budgets and other rising costs. That promise to Australians to reduce their power prices by hundreds of dollars in this term of government would have been, I think, incredibly influential in assisting the Labor Party to win government. They mentioned this commitment something like 97 times during the election campaign, but, just a couple of weeks after the election, Labor ditched the $275 power price cut promise, and we haven't heard much about it since. It's very strange that a government supposedly devoted to reducing the cost of living—like I said, the Governor-General mentioned it in his address to this place—made its first move be walking away from a promise to the Australian people to reduce their power bills in this term of government. Since then, we have seen the government's own budget forecasting astronomical price increases for electricity. Of course, all of the price increases are occurring in circumstances where interest rates have risen month after month. Indeed, we had another interest rate rise this month, on Tuesday. Inflation remains high.

All these promises that we repeatedly heard from Labor in the election campaign—that your real wages would go up if you voted Labor—weren't true either. In opposition, Labor promised Australians that the cost of living would be lower if they were elected. In government, it's their job to deliver on that promise, not to walk away from it and claim that it's no longer possible. There are, of course, global events occurring all the time which increase cost-of-living pressures for Australians, I absolutely recognise that. Yet these pressures could not have been said to have been unknown or unforeseeable when Labor went around the country in March, April and May last year, promising that they would reduce the cost of living, promising 97 that they would reduce Australians' power bills by 200-odd dollars. It will not be acceptable to Australians for this government to make excuses and claim it is all beyond their control. Their promise to cut the cost of living was unambiguous and without caveat.

The Governor's address outlined a range of serious and pressing challenges: the cost of living, as I've discussed; low wages growth; pressure in health and aged care; global tensions; and an economy in need of cheaper energy. The Governor's address said:

The Government is determined to tackle these challenges in a spirit of unity and togetherness—as well as urgency. It does not want to waste a single day.

These were the words and the commitment of the government, and yet, nine months down the track, families around Australia are waking up. Families are bearing the brunt of skyrocketing cost of living, inflation, low wages growth and energy prices being out of control. The Prime Minister's office was busy planting stories with the media about how he was going to make a speech accusing Australians of starting a culture war. Is this really what your priorities are?

This is the reality of the Labor government that we have. They said they weren't going to waste a day tackling the cost of living, but in reality they aren't going to waste a day without spin and media tactics to try to distract attention away from the real problems facing Australians. Frankly, nothing better summed up what the government's real agenda was than the press conference that the Prime Minister held with an American basketballer six months ago. Was that what the government calls 'not wasting a day' in tackling the spirit of unity and togetherness: having a stunt media event with a basketball player to talk about a local issue?

It was instructive in the Governor's address to look at the major issues for Australia which barely rated a mention. Responsible budget management is going to be the key to the future of Australia, but in that address we got little more than a few lines of rhetoric. So it was no surprise when the government's first budget kicked that can down the road on all of the difficult decisions that need to be made. Goodness me; I'm looking forward to what might be in the May budget, because maybe there will be some answers for the Australian people.

The government said that it would be prioritising spending that achieves the greatest economic benefit in the most efficient way. That is a promise that we in the opposition will be scrutinising very closely when the government hands down its budgets and makes announcements in the future. It is a promise that will be put to the test in the upcoming budget in May. Given what we've already seen from the government, it will be no surprise at all to see that promise, like so many others, being broken.

Another area which barely rated half a sentence in the address was cybersecurity. We have seen so much evidence over the last six months that many of the threats Australians are facing, and will continue to face, occur online in the cyber realm. Millions of Australians have been victims of major hacking and ransomware attacks. This is the domain of not only major international crime gangs but also foreign governments. We know the state-sponsored actors most active in cybercrime and malicious cyberactivity are also the states who are destabilising the international order in other ways—regimes like Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. We know for a fact that Australians and Australian organisations are being targeted by cyberactors affiliated with those states online. Just as we need to be able to defend ourselves in the physical world from nations which seek to use force to their advantage so too do we need to be able to defend ourselves in the cyberworld. Again, it was disappointing to not see that mentioned more in the Governor-General's address.

It's not just cyberwarfare and hacking that Australians need to be concerned about though. It is deeply disturbing to many of us in this parliament that foreign owned tech behemoths have so much influence over the minds, the welfare and the personal data of Australian children and teenagers. We are in an unfortunate period of history where we have allowed so much of our culture to be built around platforms which we know cause depression and anxiety in children and teenagers, particularly young girls. We know that these social platforms facilitate and transmit huge amounts of child sex abuse material. We know that they promote inappropriate sexualised content to young children and teenagers. We know that these platforms allow adults with evil intent to follow, monitor and make contact with children without parents having oversight of who is speaking to their children. All of this is happening openly; it's not a secret or a revelation.

At what point do we ask ourselves how this enormous amount of social harm is justified while these tech platforms continue to be celebrated and promoted? I believe that the welfare of our youngest generation is being severely put at risk by social media behemoths. Yet rather than demanding action on these issues of child abuse and harm, these platforms and governments seem more interested in censoring political discussion and debate. Many experts and I'm sure many of us here in this parliament are extremely concerned about the welfare of future generations, who, on the current trajectory, are going to be raised on a constant diet of social media fads, unrealistic and dangerous expectations, and sexualised content.

Finally, as the shadow assistant minister for foreign affairs, I would like to briefly touch on the relevant portfolio elements of the Governor-General's address. In an increasingly insecure and unstable global environment our relationships with our neighbours and partners around the world are more important than ever. The Governor-General's address rightly highlighted the importance of the historic AUKUS agreement and the strengthening of our alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States. We look forward to the announcements of progress on AUKUS and our submarine capabilities, which we expect from the government very soon.

The Governor-General's address referred accurately to an international environment far less certain than at any other time in recent memory. It's important that the government continues to keep the Australian public informed about and engaged with the reality of this situation. It is ultimately the Australian public who will pay hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming decades to defend our nation, and the public are entitled to be told why that expenditure and effort are essential.

It is widely acknowledged by our allies and like-minded nations that Australia under the former government led the world in standing up to deliberate and sustained coercion by the Chinese Communist Party regime. I am proud to have been part of a government that achieved that aim, and I'm sure many of my colleagues are likewise proud. It is noteworthy that, despite Australia having led the world in this area, this new government has made a point of repeatedly criticising the efforts of the previous government in regard to China policy. A core part of the reason we led the world was that we were honest and we were upfront with the public about the level of coercion Australia was experiencing. We must not fall back into a pattern of being timid to publicly discuss this coercion and other egregious breaches of international order, including human rights violations. For some time now, the demand of the Chinese government has been that Australia rein in open discussion of our concerns, not just at a government level but also in the media and in the parliament. But Australia is an open democracy, and the government is accountable to the parliament and to the people. We are all entitled to openness and transparency. In fact, it is transparency itself which makes coercion by any foreign regime much harder to carry out.

Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution in response to the address by the Governor-General at the commencement of this 47th Parliament, and I'm really pleased to do so today. While it has been a little while now since His Excellency addressed this parliament, I'm grateful for the opportunity to reflect on those sentiments at the start of this parliamentary term. I have the benefit of six months of government, though, through which to reflect and remark on the address that was made. While I was updating my remarks before this sitting of parliament, it occurred to me how pleased I was to see how consistent the themes and aspirations of His Excellency's address were with the reality of what our government has already achieved in the past six months.

The Governor-General spoke about our ambition for a future made in Australia, where we invest in Australian workers, skills, supply chains and sovereignty, through the National Reconstruction Fund. I'm pleased to say that this legislation has been introduced into parliament, and, despite what those opposite have said about their opposition, we are committed to bringing manufacturing back home. He spoke about the investment in Australia's infrastructure—something that has been a cornerstone of our first budget. Much of our government's work will be in not only restoring the reputation of our infrastructure department—ending the rorts and waste and the colour-coded spreadsheets—but ensuring that our regions have the investment that they need for the future.

The Governor-General also spoke about our government's commitment to climate action. Although many things have differentiated us from the previous government, our ambition on climate action has been the most stark. That's because, like most Australians, we recognise both the urgency and the opportunity that comes with taking action on climate change. Last year, climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen made Australia's first annual statement on climate change. In it, he laid out the urgency of the action that is required. He said:

Our country was devastated by the Black Summer bushfires just a few years ago.

But, as frightening as that bushfire season was, the absence of action will see the temperatures and conditions of that year become normal by the 2040s and become a 'good year' by the 2060s.

Our government is prepared to act to stem the tide of that forecast. We are prepared to listen to the science, to implement change, to deliver policies that create good jobs and to listen to what the Australian people voted for.

I'm proud that one of our first actions in government was, with the support of many in this parliament, to pass the Climate Change Act. This legislation finally sets medium- and long-term emissions reduction targets. With the passage of this legislation in our first 100 days, we finally provided the certainty and stability to industry, to businesses and to the community that had been missing for almost a decade in government. It means business, industry and investors can plan for our future prosperity with a new level of certainty and confidence. We took a careful and collaborative approach to determining our target because that's the kind of government we are and that's the kind of economy we are striving to create. This certainty delivers massive opportunity for progress in our economy and for our nation.

Our Powering Australia plan is already making headway on aligning our climate ambitions with our economic goals. Last week, Minister Bowen announced a global partnership for investment in green hydrogen with Germany and the Netherlands. These partnerships are just a drop in the ocean of work done by our government to re-engage internationally on climate. From COP27, the Quad and the G20 to our work with our Pacific family, we have resurrected Australia's international leadership on climate, one that was left for dead for over a decade.

On a community and household level, work has already begun on 400 community batteries, which are part of the Albanese Labor government's commitment to complement our climate ambitions with our cost-of-living commitments.

Our government is moving quickly to clean up the mess left by the previous government's failure to deliver an electric vehicle strategy. When we came to government last year, Australia's electric car sales were five times below the international average, at just two per cent of total sales. Our government has already passed on tax cuts to businesses who make the decision to invest in electric fleets. We have also partnered with the NRMA to develop our national electric vehicle charging network, making sure there's a fast-charger once every 150 kilometres on average on Australian highways. Of course, as a government asking the Australian people to walk with us on this economy-wide transformation, we are committed to demonstrating commitment and integrity of our own. We are working with all arms of government to meet our commitment of net zero by 2030.

We also know that, in order to make good on our climate targets and Powering Australia, we need infrastructure to be fit for purpose. Our electricity system is one of the biggest emitters, and if we reach our climate ambition we need an electricity system to accommodate more renewables—from 30 to 82 per cent over the next eight years. That is a difficult target to meet when we have had 10 years of inaction under the previous government. Our Rewiring the Nation policy will ensure our transmission infrastructure is up to the task, with its investment costed in our first budget. All of this nation-building means good, meaningful jobs now and into the future. Through Powering Australia, our government is committed to creating 600,000 jobs, with five out of every six of those jobs being in the regions. Future generations will benefit from 10,000 new energy apprentices, and I look forward to seeing many of them in my backyard in regional Queensland.

As a regional Queenslander I know how much anxiety and aspiration was built into debates about climate change and energy over the last decade. Hopefully, some of that divisiveness has now changed. We feel it a lot in regional Queensland. It's a daily discussion. But regional communities like mine have always been the centrepiece of Australia's energy security and industrial prosperity. Regional Australia worked hard for the good fortune that the entire nation enjoyed over decades. We have rightly earned our place as a centrepiece of its future opportunities. Regional Australia is at the core of our plan to become a renewable energy superpower. Our communities will be central to our efforts to rebuild our manufacturing industry, underpinned by reliable and affordable energy. Regional Australia will lead the innovation and effort to re-establish our global industrial leadership.

These commitments aren't just nice things to say, or untested aspirations. They are already underway. We have hit the ground running and we are committed to delivering on our promises. I know this firsthand because a few weeks ago I was in Townsville with the Prime Minister, and we announced that $150 million is already earmarked for a green hydrogen project in Townsville. It's why Gladstone was one of the first places listed as a future location for regional hydrogen hubs in last week's joint announcement with the Netherlands. Australia's regions are hives of resources, skills and expertise. There is no better example of that than throughout Central, North and Far North Queensland—communities who are so ready, have been waiting for leadership, finally have it and can't wait to get started.

Australia is also fortunate to learn from the insights and expertise of First Nations communities on our natural environment. In my role as a senator for Queensland and Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef, I speak directly with First Nations rangers, community leaders and traditional owners. It is their intimate knowledge of our country and of our natural environment that will ensure the success of our collective efforts on climate. This is why our Labor government is proud to work directly with communities to develop our very first First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. It's why we're investing in the unique expertise and perspective of the Torres Strait, a beautiful part of Queensland, by developing the Torres Strait Climate Centre of Excellence. I'm lucky to have spent quite a bit of time in this place and to have seen firsthand the intimacy with which these communities understand the unique waterways on which they live. The water is a way of life in the Torres Strait. Working in respectful partnership with Torres Strait Islanders is one of our most promising strategies to protect the land and, most importantly, the water that we all love, especially the Great Barrier Reef.

I'm proud to have played my part in Australia's climate efforts in my role as Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef. Not only is the reef one of the seven wonders of the natural world; it is a vital part of Australia's economic prosperity. Sixty-four thousand jobs rely on the reef, and those families and businesses are front of mind in all the work I do. I only wish that those families, those businesses and those jobs were front and centre in the minds of those opposite. The Albanese Labor government has already invested $1.2 billion in protecting the Great Barrier Reef and making sure it can be enjoyed for generations to come.

When you consider the scale of communities and businesses and industries that are impacted by climate uncertainty, the inaction of the previous government becomes all the more shocking. That negligence is no better demonstrated than in our manufacturing industry.

Manufacturers have been telling us for years that they need reliable, cheap energy to keep their doors open. With a sturdy climate ambition and clarity on safeguard mechanisms, our government is giving them exactly that. And it's paying dividends. Just recently, Minister Bowen opened the expanded facility at Tindo Solar. Their growth shows that we have always had the skills and expertise to make our future energy needs here but have just required the right economic conditions to make it happen. Certainty on energy, complemented by sound investment through our National Reconstruction Fund, means we are finally on the way to a future made in Australia.

While I know I've painted a picture of optimism and opportunity, there are some in this place who have spent their time in the 47th Parliament already trying to derail it. While there are some who'd let the perfect be the enemy of the good, there are those who don't even strive for good in the first place. The shameful record of those opposite on climate action didn't end on 29 May. Not even an election could change their minds. Not enough of those opposite did anything on climate for nine years. They followed it up by putting up every obstacle they could muster to stop us from doing anything in government. Well, it was not enough that voters had sent a clear message that they wanted to end the climate/culture wars; those opposite continued to roll out the same old boring scare tactics. It was not enough that they'd come into this place and repeatedly whipped up hysteria about renewable energy. They followed it by arguing for the most expensive and slow form of power and the one hardest to deliver to the market—nuclear power.

What I will give them, when it comes to their one-pronged energy plan, is that they will continue to be consistent with their conduct from their days in government. They'll propose something divisive, expensive and ineffective, provide no detail on where it will go or how it will work, and hope that everyone forgets the flop of the plan they were flogging for months before.

Those opposite will tell you that this challenge ahead of us is a zero sum game—that, if you make progress on climate, you'll lose something that you enjoy. That could not be further from the truth. We won't lose what we love about the weekend just because we can make it easier to buy an electric vehicle. Investment in renewables won't be the end of good, rewarding, renewable regional jobs. The opposition have tried for too long to pull the wool over our eyes when it comes to what we know we have to lose if we don't act on climate change. In fact, inaction, lack of investment and ignoring the challenges are what will cost us the most.

Our silver lining is the duality of our future, if we get this right. Labor's future is for a serious climate agenda and a thriving regional industry; it's a safe planet, a healthy, vibrant reef and a booming tourism industry. It's electric vehicles and a weekend spent among our unique and pristine landscapes. It's renewable energy and affordable, reliable power at home. All of these things can be true at once, but only if we act with urgency. Australia has so much to gain—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 11.15, the debate is interrupted. Senator Green, you will be in continuation.