Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Act now, or it will be too late.' That was the key message from the IPCC AR6 synthesis report out overnight—eight years of work by the world's key climate scientists. And, when they say 'act', they are calling for a massive acceleration of climate action—a fast-tracking of climate ambition, in every country, in every sector and on every time line. They are also calling for no new fossil fuel projects and a net zero target for each nation by 2035. That's what the science tells us we need to do to keep global warming to 1½ degrees.

So why, in this country, are we voting on a piece of legislation for the safeguard mechanism that has a climate ambition of two degrees warming—significantly above what the IPCC scientists tell us we need to achieve? It's legislation that is not massively increasing our climate ambitions; it's legislation that will allow for the unfettered development of hundreds of new fossil fuel projects. We have a responsibility to the world to play our part. And this piece of legislation, the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022, will not do that. So why? That's the question that we all need to ask ourselves.

The only response we've had from the government so far is: 'It is what is achievable'—whatever that is supposed to mean. Perhaps they mean it's achievable because that's what big business will accept, or that it's achievable in terms of their political ambitions to win power at the next election. But, either way, I'm looking forward to the debate in this place, because it has never been more serious than now to get climate action. (Time expired)