Fight for Australia's Coastline Bill 2022
Senator Grogan: It's been very interesting to listen to the debate in this chamber this morning on the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Fight for Australia's Coastline) Bill 2022. Just to be really clear, we will not be placing a blanket ban on oil and gas tomorrow morning. This is not a responsible way to govern. We have stepped out a whole range of things on where we're going, but placing a ban on oil and gas tomorrow morning is not the answer. The transition to more sustainable energy sources needs to be done carefully. It needs to be done in a balanced way. It needs to be done responsibly. I think the eight months of this Labor government has shown that we are making significant progress after 10 long years of irresponsible action.
Oil and gas are going to play a part in our future. Our transport system, turning on the lights, cooking your dinner and using the internet all require us to have a sensible approach to the issue of oil and gas in this country. We support the international frameworks. We've committed to global emissions reductions, and we are establishing a more credible place for Australia in the world. We've been made the laughing stock for many, many years, and we are now changing that. We are now making those changes to get this country on track.
The last 10 years of stagnation from the previous government have been planet-destroying at worst and irresponsible at best. We are changing that. We have made moves already in eight months, and we will continue to make those moves, but we will make them responsibly and we will make them in the context of the global actions that have been taken by our colleagues. We'll be doing it so that we can provide sustainability and confidence that what we do is clear and transparent and has a meaningful and sensible pathway.
At COP 15, for example, we led from the front. We campaigned for strong targets and clear measurements, and we now have a global agreement to protect 30 per cent of our land and 30 per cent of our oceans by 2030. We're not looking at that and saying, 'This is it; we can all go home to bed now.' It is about crafting a pathway forward. It is about genuinely making a difference. We have secured a high ambition on restoring degraded land, inland water and coastal marine ecosystems. We have good targets on reducing invasive species and recognising island sites. We've successfully advocated for placing rights and interests of First Nations people at the forefront of nature conservation, when they've been ignored for so long. Large companies will be required to disclose their nature related risks and impacts. They will be held to account. Australia has led the way on these negotiations, pushing for an ambitious agreement.
But we are getting on with delivering the plans at home as well. Our 'protect and repair' program for the environment has been announced. The minister is taking serious action to ensure that we change the way that this country is dealing with those threats that we are all so clear about and that have been articulated in debates in this parliament
We are implementing a stronger emissions reduction target with a clear pathway to net zero. Rewiring the Nation for renewable energy will enable those renewable energy sources to tap straight into the grid, and we will have cheaper, cleaner power. Our environment protection agency is going to be able to enforce our laws on the ground. We have had more than a decade of challenges, more than a decade of knowing that our environmental laws are broken, but we are fixing that. As I said, in eight short months we are fixing the problems that this country has faced for the last decade and longer. We need to get to net zero. We need to protect the planet, we need to do it responsibly and we need to do it in a manner that provides clarity for business and clarity for people who care about the environment and people who don't. We need to provide that clarity so that everyone knows what this playing field will look like.
Over the last eight months we have changed that playing field. Conservation organisations have welcomed these changes, and business has welcomed these changes. These are changes that everyone can see need to be made. The opposition left animals, plants and places without the protection that they need and hid the contents of the State of the environment report—and no wonder. Two years out from an election, releasing that report would have shown that nothing had been done and the country's environment was in a dire state.
On our approach to coal and gas, we aim to get to 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030, and the detailed plans we have put in place will get us there. Our plans are clear and transparent and open for anyone to look at. New projects that do go forward will need to meet very specific requirements. They will need to meet rigorous environmental checks, which we are changing as I have set out. They will also need to comply with the safeguard mechanism reforms that we are currently consulting on. Our approach to reducing the emissions of our biggest emitters will be addressed through those planned reforms. All big emitters should reduce their emissions. The challenge we have in getting to net zero is a challenge for all of us. To be clear: the majority of businesses realise that this must be done so that their business can operate. This is not, as is claimed by some in this chamber, business-killing action—it isn't. It is about setting up Australia to operate effectively, efficiently, profitably into the future.
The reforms of the safeguard have been designed so that all facilities, whether they are existing or new, are required to reduce their emissions. New coal and gas projects covered by the facilities will be required to keep their emissions below their baselines from their first year in operation and their baselines will reduce over time on that pathway, as I've said, to net zero by 2050. This recognises that new facilities can use the latest technology. This is not about stopping things; this is about learning how to do things differently. This is about embracing innovation. This is about changing the way we do things—not just stopping things but utilising the amazing science and development industries that we have, to change the way that we do things, to move ourselves into a state of renewable, sustainable energy, to power this country from the resources that are indeed renewable. We believe this sends a very strong signal to investors, because we need investment. We need investors to see that Australia is an excellent place to invest in—that we can see the future, that we have vision and leadership, and that our leadership says, 'We will embrace the future and we will do it cleanly,' not that we will stop doing everything that people don't like.
The previous government's design for emissions reduction was seriously flawed, and emissions actually increased over time. The detail is important, and the commitment of our industries and our communities is really important. We are getting there. We are consulting with people, and we are getting very positive responses. Even organisations that a couple of years ago would stand staunchly against making emissions reductions are now coming to the party, and that is because they know that their future relies on them getting on board, changing the technology that we're using, changing how business is operated and preparing ourselves to be a leader of the future. The projects will meet both of those—the emissions reduction piece and also the environmental piece.
Senators may have noticed I haven't said 'PEP-11' yet. That is because looking at one single project does not give us the outcome that we need. Looking at one single project does not change the structure and shape of this country and how we approach energy into the future. The PEP-11 process is in front of the New South Wales court, which is its jurisdiction, where it is appropriately being dealt with. We will see how that plays out. My colleague Senator Ayres has stepped out the disaster of the past few years on PEP-11—the previous government, the politics, the grandstanding, the divisive actions, which all led to the mess that we see here today. Let's not forget that when the previous Prime Minister, the member for Cook, made his declarations, he wasn't just the Prime Minister; he was also the resources minister and held a bunch of other ministries as well, as we know from the mess that he created by feeling that he was the only one fit to run any of those portfolios, given his distrust of his colleagues. That creates huge challenges in our legal system and our parliamentary system. Secrecy and lies are not something that you will see from the Labor government. It is no surprise that we had come to expect this kind of action from the previous government and the previous Prime Minister—confusion, grandstanding and political pointscoring.
We are committed to following due process, respecting our legal structures and respecting our parliamentary structures. That is what we will be doing as a government. The PEP-11 process is in the hands of the New South Wales government at this point in time. That is where it is supposed to be and that is where it will be dealt with in the first instance. As we have done in the eight months that we have been in government, we will provide reliable, transparent processes so that everybody is clear about the future and so that everybody is clear about what we are doing and how we are doing it. We will not follow the previous example of chaos and mismanagement.
This debate has covered the issues of individualistic and systemic approaches. I think it's pretty clear from what I've said that the systemic approach is the one that will lead us into a clean and reliable future. The individualistic approach of just picking out your favourite projects, picking out the things you want to worry about on a particular day, is short-sighted.
Looking holistically at our oil, gas and renewable energy environment is leadership, not individual calls on individual projects that sit in another jurisdiction. Leadership requires responsibility. Banning oil and gas doesn't provide leadership, it doesn't provide responsibility and it doesn't provide certainty into the future. Yes, we are totally committed to net zero. Yes, we are totally committed to looking at a future that's cleaner, more sustainable, that people can rely on and understand exactly what's coming into the future.