Senator GREEN (Queensland) (16:05): I am very pleased to be addressing the Senate today not only in my role as a senator for Queensland and not only as someone who has long argued for climate action but also in my new position as the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef. As someone who lives in Cairns, I understand more than most people how important it is for us to protect the Great Barrier Reef and to make sure that we not only have this asset to enjoy for many generations to come but also to protect the jobs that the reef relies on. In taking up this role as the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef, there are a number of issues that I am keen to address and a number of issues that I am keen to talk to many stakeholders about. Since being appointed to the role, I have had the opportunity to speak to conservation groups, tourism operators, agricultural leaders and also, of course, traditional owners, who in this space are doing fantastic work. Australians made a clear choice on 21 May. They are ready for action on climate change, and they are ready for a Labor government to deliver it. In all of the conversations that I have had with people around the Great Barrier Reef in this role as the special reef envoy, it has been clear to me that people are incredibly hopeful for the future now that there has been a change of government. They are incredibly hopeful about the plans that Labor has put in place and the things that we have said that we will do to take action on climate change and to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Today our government has taken one of those very important steps. We have introduced legislation to take action on climate change, to make sure that this bill does what the previous government failed to do over a decade in power. I am very proud to be here today as part of this government and as the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef as we send a very clear message that the time for action on climate change is now. The stability and certainty that is going to come from legislating this target is clear for all Australians to see, and it is important for Australians and their future. Our government will not waste the opportunities that come with climate action. As Senator Wong said today in question time, this not only is a matter of protecting our environment but also is an economic question and is about the jobs that come from investing in renewable energy. The previous government were so opposed to taking action on climate change that they vetoed renewable energy projects because it was against their own policy; they tried to take the 'R' out of ARENA; and they are still actively standing against climate change. Our government will not be one of inaction and waste when it comes to this important issue. That is why we will deliver on our mandate of a 43 per cent target. Today the Albanese Labor government introduced the Climate Change Bill 2022, enshrining 43 per cent emissions reductions into law. This puts us on track to reach net zero by 2050 and restores our international reputation as a responsible global citizen. This legislation brings much needed certainty to workers, businesses and communities as our energy needs change. We are prepared to reap the benefits of renewable energy future. Today, Labor restored accountability and certainty in Australia's climate approach. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy will now be required to report our progress to the parliament, making sure that we are being transparent and ambitious when we strive to reach net zero. This legislation represents a hard-fought consensus on climate change amongst Australians. It has the support of business associations, unions, environmental groups and community organisations. As the Minister for Climate Change and Energy has said, this is a critical first step and the experts will continue to inform our approach to targets moving forward. This is the first step, a step that Australians have waited so long to see taken, and we are taking this step as a government now. The legislation will enshrine a nationally determined contribution of 43 per cent emissions. As I said, it will task the Climate Change Authority to provide advice on Australia's progress against these targets. It will require the minister to report annually to parliament on the progress and it will, finally, in other legislation, reinsert the renewables component into ARENA. This is on top of Labor's plan to power Australia. It complements our plan to create jobs, cut power bills and reduce emissions through our Powering Australia plan. Labor's plan will upgrade the electricity grid, make electric vehicles cheaper and invest in green manufacturing. The Powering Australia plan will deliver over 600,000 jobs across the country, with five out of six of those jobs created in regional Australia. It will cut power bills for families and businesses as we take advantage of Australia's vast natural resources. Our Powering Australia plan is another example of Labor's ambitious and resourceful approach when we are taking on the challenge of climate change. We won't bury our heads in the sand. We know that this is complex. We know that there are issues that we need to see through. We won't see them through a singular lens. Labor takes up the challenge and finds ways to solve this issue and deliver real social and economic returns for the Australian people. This is in direct contrast to the last decade of denial and delay. It is clear that, under the former government, Australians had lost hope. They had lost hope. After a decade of chaos on renewable energy, Labor's Climate Change Bill will finally give the certainty so desperately needed for businesses, industry, energy investors and the wider community. In my community of regional Queensland, we have seen hundreds of jobs evaporate as a result of the disunity within the previous government on climate change, and I note this disunity continues in the opposition. They are obviously being given an opportunity to join the government to vote for our legislation. They've indicated that they will not be doing that, although I know that the disunity continues within the opposition. It really begs the question about who and what the opposition has been listening to, and clearly they didn't hear the message from the Australian people at the last election. There are real and serious consequences from the previous government's actions that Labor is just now having the opportunity to start cleaning up, and we will work with people across this chamber to achieve outcomes for all Australians. We will work with people who want to see climate action put into reality. We will be constructive, but the Australian people know what Labor took to the last election. They understand that plan that we have, the Powering Australia plan. They understand that we have a commitment to a 43 per cent target. They understand that that was not a target or a number plucked out of thin air but was something that we put together by understanding, through independent modelling, what levers the government could pull and what emissions reductions we could achieve if we pull those levers. This is something that we have taken to the Australian people, and now, as a government, we are planning to legislate these targets. It is an opportunity, I think, for this parliament to rise above the divisive politics of the climate wars under the previous government. Under the former government we saw climate wars deliver nothing but political debate in this space, and we know there are people in this chamber who need to understand that we are here to deliver on our election commitments. We are here to listen and we will be constructive, and I think we have been constructive when it comes to the negotiations on the legislation. But we have a very clear mandate. We have a very clear agenda, and we are delivering on that agenda. When it comes to climate change, every time I'm on my feet in this place I continue to remind the chamber that there are people in our country in Queensland right now who are feeling the effects of climate change. Along with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator McAllister, I had the opportunity to go to the Torres Strait a few weeks ago. We sat down with those community members, and it was a real honour to listen to them directly and to see the changes that are happening—the coastal erosion. It really begs the question: if any person from the other side of the chamber could hear those personal stories, could see that coastal erosion occurring and could still choose to think that this is not a place where we need to get down and get the work done on climate change, then I don't understand what they are here for. What we've got from the opposition so far is more denials, more diversion and more debate and delay. But this government, a Labor government, is getting on with the job, and that is why we have put this legislation to the parliament. We'll give the parliament an opportunity to discuss that legislation, to talk about the value of acting on climate change, but we will get this done, and, if the parliament does not legislate the target, we will still set about achieving the things that we promised the Australian people, because the time to do that is now. Senator DUNIAM (Tasmania) (16:15): I have to commend Senator Green for getting through 10 minutes on an MPI put forward by the Greens around banning coal and gas without mentioning either of those particular fossil fuels. I was enlightened by your contribution there about the Labor Party's—now government—policy to legislate, but I'm still at a loss to understand, based on that contribution, where you stand on this MPI. I'm sure other government speakers will enlighten us on exactly where they stand, but I'll put on record my views and the views of the opposition here, which have been made clear time and time again. Sometimes, though, I do think that some in this place live in a parallel universe. I think we could be forgiven for thinking that because today we saw the inflation number released—6.1 per cent. I don't think we should just brush off and forget about that figure and not pay attention to the impact it's going to have on Australian households and businesses, job-creating entities. These sorts of things are an important backdrop to the motion that the Greens have so generously put down for us, as put forward by Senator Waters: The biggest causes of climate change is the extraction and burning of coal and gas. To prevent the climate crisis getting worse, no new coal and gas projects can be developed in Australia. Now they've spoken to that as a standalone statement today, but the impacts of doing that on the economy—and I mentioned earlier on today that there are two fragile things that we need to take into account here: (1) the environment and (2) the economy. Environmental decisions have an impact on the economy, on people's jobs, on their ability to pay power bills, on their ability to keep food on the table and on their ability to keep their businesses running, and to make a decision over here with absolutely no regard for what impact it will have over there is a ridiculous approach to public policy, and that is exactly what we're seeing here. I can see why Senator Green refused to even go near it, because it is difficult for the Labor Party to reconcile their rhetoric around fossil fuels and the problems they're going to have when it comes to the Australian Greens and trying to legislate in this place and deal with their demands when it comes to things like this. I've already mentioned inflation hitting 6.1 per cent, hitting a many-decades-held record, which is, as I say, going to have an impact. We know that, similarly, power prices are going sky high and that from June 2021 prices have gone up in the National Electricity Market by 200 to 300 per cent. That's a huge amount. We know that Labor won't be able to fulfil their promise to the Australian people from just nine weeks ago that power bills will go down by $275. Bank interest rates are going up. Fuel—the cost of fuel—to put into your car is going up. And Australian households are hurting. They're doing it tough. So, on the first substantive day of sitting in this parliament, in the Australian Senate, when we're here debating this issue with absolutely no regard for the impact that it has on households and businesses, it's something Australians need to wake up to and listen to, to see the impacts that these sorts of policies, this sort of direction, would have on households that are doing it tough and on Australians that are working hard. It is something, frankly, that the Greens should probably reflect upon, given it demonstrates how out of touch they are with Australians, who just want to get on and live their lives and want the government to bring in policies that help them live their lives, to make a better future for themselves and their children, to have a go and to get rewarded—you know, those great Australian ideals. But, as I say, this MPI has been written with zero regard for the impact such a call would have on the ability of honest, hardworking Australians to make a go of things. We already know the facts around how much the resources specified in this MPI contribute to energy generation in this country. The great bulk of energy generated in this country is from these resources. Now, we know there are plans. The government have outlined their plan to transition to renewables, but the idea that you can just shut down exploration and expansion of existing resources, which are going to be needed—any expert will tell you that—without forcing businesses and households, hospitals and schools to turn the lights off, the heaters off, is a short-sighted, cynical stunt which will have bad impacts on Australians. Let's say this MPI and what the Greens would love to do to Australia in some dystopian world became reality, when would the lights switch off? Would it be in five years, 10 years? When would we not be able to keep the lights on in schools or store in appropriate refrigeration units vital medicines in hospitals? When would we stop being able to do that? When would you be sitting in the dark at home eating your dinner? When would the factories stop being able to do what they do best, manufacture, something we want to do more of here, with our resources rather than outsourcing it to countries that do burn fossil fuels? That is something you guys seem to forget about. The jobs are lost, the businesses are shut down and the cycle goes on and on, and this is something that these trite statements, these motions that we see from time to time never, ever take account of and never have any regard for. Those people who work in those industries and those people impacted, they don't matter, apparently. We only have to come down to Tasmania, where we have businesses that do rely on coal to be able to do what they do. The Railton cement factory, for one, is something. We have this shortage of material to go into the housing and construction sector. But let's say the Fingal colliery ran out of coal and needed to expand, I presume if the Greens had their way we would no longer be able to source coal. We would not be able to produce concrete to be able to feed that plant and, of course, the housing and construction sector but that doesn't matter. How about the Norske Skog paper mill in the Derwent Valley? It doesn't matter. They use coal to fire their boilers. They are looking for alternatives, of course. I am sure they are ones that we would want to stand in the way of. But, as it stands, under your motion, we would be standing in the way of that and the 500 or 600 jobs in the Derwent Valley. Who cares? Don't worry, that community does not matter. This is the thing. There is no regard for these people and no consideration at all for the flow-on effects this would have for the economy and, indeed, also for the environment. I'm waiting to see what the alternatives are. I look at a bit of recent history around what we could be doing, because if we're shutting down fossil fuel use and there are no more new gas or coal operations and projects across this country then where would we be sourcing this energy that we need to be a competitive economy from? In this fragile economy I talked about before, the one that's facing the economic headwinds that the government have already been talking about and the international community is bracing for, where would we get this alternative energy from? I heard Senator Whish-Wilson refer to 'renew economy' earlier on. I was looking at the website and there was a link on there talking about how the Greens opposed the Marinus Link, a vital piece of infrastructure which is there to generate investment in renewable energy, in the battery of the nation, expanding our hydro generation. But no, we can't have that. So, okay, we can't have hydro. We all know the Greens were given birth to out of the Franklin dam dispute, so they are definitely against hydro. They also opposed the Robbins Island windfarm, one example of renewables they're opposed to. So we have hydro, we have wind but they are a no go. So where would we be getting this energy from? They want to be a part of the solution here but they don't provide solutions; they just tell us what we shouldn't be doing. They have no regard for honest hardworking men and women who will be impacted by this. But I'm not surprised by this and I doubt a great many Australians would be either, to be honest with you. We in Tasmania know exactly what we're dealing with here when it comes to this sort of thing and the party behind the movement of such MPIs and motions. When you have the Greens near the levers of power, bad things happen. We warned Australians about this and here we are, the first substantive day of sitting in the Senate, and this is the first thing they chuck down. I tell you, this is what we need to expect. It is a word of warning to the Australian Labor Party, the government, we all know you have two pathways to legislate in this place. One of them is with the Australian Greens, and we've just been given a sneak preview of the kinds of things, I dare say, probably the stuff they've been laying on the table in new negotiations over your legislated 43 per cent reduction in emissions bill. This is what the world is in for in Australia. At a time when people can't pay their mortgages, can't pay their power bills and can't put fuel in the car, this is what the Australian Greens are proposing. It is a dim, dark future not just because we can't keep the lights on but because the policies this crew put forward are bad for Australia, are bad for businesses and households and will mean economic disruption and the removal of our ability to compete in the international economy.