On 9 August 2023, I spoke about the impact of expanding gas extraction on climate change. 

I think I was 12 years old when the CPRS happened in this country, and the government conveniently forgets that, yes, the ETS went through.

We got a price on carbon. We got the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. We got the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. We got more action on climate, in that short period of the Gillard government, than we have ever seen from you guys since. 

The science is clear. We are in a climate emergency. We are facing harsher and more frequent fires, floods, heatwaves and droughts. It threatens the safety of people, our health, water, the ability to grow food and the air we breathe. The stakes could not be higher. A climate emergency requires an emergency response. It means putting the climate crisis at the centre of all policy and planning decisions and mobilising the whole of government to protect Australia's people and ecology.

The biggest cause of global heating is the mining, transporting and burning of fossil fuels—coal, oil and gas. In an emergency, the very first action we have to take is to immediately remove whatever is causing the damage. That means keeping all untapped coal, oil and gas fields in the ground. This is not some far-off distant threat. We are already experiencing a shift in climate, with one-in-100-year bushfires and floods every few years. Already, the Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences has calculated that each Australian farmer has lost at least $29,200 in average reduced income per year because of climate change.

Significant bushfires in Tasmania and New South Wales in 2013 and the Black Summer bushfires in 2019 to 2020 show that an El Nino weather event is no longer needed to produce a bad fire season. Even a neutral phase can now produce periods of extreme and catastrophic fire danger. As the International Energy Agency has made clear, not one new coal or gas project can proceed if we are to stay below 1.5 degrees. To meet net zero by 2050, not a single piece of new fossil fuel infrastructure can be built: no more coal; no more gas. It is simply that straightforward.

So what is the Australian government doing to address such an emergency? This is a government that, just last week, passed a sea-dumping bill which paves the way for fossil fuel giants to expand their Australian gas projects.

The Labor, Liberal and National parties are captured by the donations and influence of coal, oil and gas companies, with tens of millions of dollars donated to them in the past decade alone. We don't need more bandaid solutions from this government; we need strong action. If we continue to mine and burn coal, oil and gas, we will put more than a million Australian jobs in tourism and farming at risk. Food, insurance and health costs will continue to go up. We'll keep paying more for energy and risk further economic loss across multiple industries.

The government needs to listen to the scientists, to the communities who have suffered from bushfires and floods and to our Pacific neighbours, all of whom are calling for greater climate action.

[interjections]

Yes, and you're not doing anything to address it, so I'm sure they'll thank you in 30 years when their nations are underwater. Drastically cutting emissions is possible with the technology we have today. We have the distinct advantage in Australia of abundant renewable energy resources. We should look to become a renewable energy superpower in this region, and we can develop new export and manufacturing industries, such as green hydrogen.

But what we urgently require is action. The government must show global leadership and take profound action on the escalating climate crisis. It is vital that we commit to no new coal and gas, end native forest logging, shift electricity generation to renewables and storage, and increase electricity production to allow the direct and indirect electrification of all energy used by households, businesses and the transport industry.

I am sick and tired of being gaslit by this government into thinking they are taking bold and courageous steps to address climate change. In reality, they will not do what the science tells us is needed and they will not stop all new fossil fuel projects.