Adam Bandt on climate: Greens will vote yes
Adam Bandt says if Labor continues to open up more coal and gas “the planet will burn”.
“And that is the mandate we all need to listen to,” he says.
But the Greens are in support of the bill passing.
Key events
It’s another dixer on the defence review, which I am sure is absolutely the topic on every Australian’s mind right now.
Moving on.
Sussan Ley is up next:
Prime minister, in the last four months alone, you have been caught not knowing the cash rate, not knowing the unemployment rate, not knowing that Australia’s borders were open, not knowing your own NDIS policy, and not knowing how to keep women safe on worksites. Prime minister, now you have been caught giving families…
Tony Burke interjects with a point of order, but Milton Dick is already all over it:
I ask you to rephrase the end of the question to make sure it’s not reflecting – you can repeat the question as one of the does not reflect upon the prime minister.
So is Ley – she already has a new version of the question ready to go:
In the last four months alone, you were caught not knowing the cash rate, not knowing the unemployment rate, not knowing that Australia’s borders were open, not knowing your own NDIS policy, and prioritising the CFMEU over women’s safety on work sites. Now that you have been caught giving families false hope about a $275 cut to their power bill, why won’t you confess and apologise to struggling Australians?
Anthony Albanese:
I thank the deputy leader for her question, which goes to what occurred over the last four months. It goes to what occurred over the last four months and there is one day in particular that sticks in my mind over the last four months.
It’s 21 May, 2022. On 21 May, 2022,… 77 members of the Australian Labor Party were elected to the House of Representatives. And those 77 people were elected with a clear mandate, to stop the waste and the rorts, that dominated those opposite. To end the corruption that occurred by having a national anti-corruption commission, to make sure that we had fairness in the workplace by reforming industrial relations, to give the lowest-paid workers on $22.33 an hour a $1 increase, something that they said would ruin the economy.
We were elected [with] the mandate to increase investment in public housing to a PowerHousing Australia Future Fund.
There is a point of order from Ley (of course)
Why is that all this shouting in a family friendly parliament?
I am not sure whether it has been an official memo or just a coping mechanism, but the opposition have taken up these sorts of points of order with gusto.
Milton Dick has had enough:
That is the second time in a row that she has done that. I warned her specifically yesterday about taking points of order during Question Time to disrupt questions. I want to be very clear on this. She is right down to the wire in terms of pushing me at the moment. To ensure that we keep Question Time flowing. I can’t be clearer than that.
There is no point of order obviously, so we continue with Albanese:
I was asked about the last four months. And I’m going through the last four months, which I must say I’ve had worse four months. I’ve got to say that, Mr Speaker. Because in the last four months, what we have also done … is advance the interests of the Australian people who have wanted action on climate change.
[The Australian people] who have wanted action on climate change, with a 43% reduction by 2030, with legislation carried, moving forward the debate about climate change. Working with the business [community], working with unions, working with civil society, and that’s why as well we convened the Jobs and Skills Summit which will occur within four months of that election on 21 May.
That’s why we also introduced into this parliament, and will carry through both houses, 10 days’ pay [for] family and domestic violence … That’s why already we are taking action to implement the recommendations of the aged care royal commission.
That’s why we have already made moves on the robodebt royal commission. This is a government that has taken up the mantle, both before and preparing a solid agenda for a government that is forward-looking, for a government that actually governs, as opposed to just engages in cheap, tawdry politics every day.
The first dixer is on the latest defence review.
On to the questions for the second last time this week.
Peter Dutton to Anthony Albanese:
On becoming Prime Minister you repeated your promise to cut electricity bills by [$275] on no less than 15 occasions. After becoming prime minister, you have not mentioned it once. Prime minister you said and I quote, it is the job of the prime minister to deal with the challenges that Australia faces and not to constantly just blame someone else. Will you be honest with the Australian people and tell them whether they will be getting a $275 cut that you promised them?
Albanese:
Today we have another step closer to delivering our mandate. Our mandate that we received at the election. Our mandate that was fully modelled by reputation and that we stand by.
Our mandate that will see a 43% reduction in emissions by 2030. While we are doing it we will create 640,000 new jobs, five out of every six of them in regional Australia. A mandate that will see the renewable sector as part of the National electricity market grow to 82% by 2030.
All part of our plan to go to net zero by 2050. And I am pleased that we have made statements today across this parliament of people who are prepared to not get everything that they want, but are prepared to acknowledge the fact that we need to end the climate wars.
Those opposite [were] very different. Very different. Prior to the 2019 election, the then shadow minister said that there would be a 25% reduction in the average NEM spot price to less than $75 per megawatt hour by the end of 2021. That is what was said at that time. By the minister, now the shadow treasurer. In May 2019, [the] average wholesale price was $93.
Unsurprisingly, there is a point of order from Paul Fletcher on relevance. Milton Dick rules there is no point of order.
Albanese continues:
I can see why they don’t want to hear this. Because they promised it would be $70, it was $93. And guess what it was? $341. Missed by this much! Missed by just $271! Promised $70, delivered $341.
And now they have come up with opposition to the cheapest form of energy, renewables; they’ve come up with the most expensive solutions. Nuclear power, nuclear power.
Putting the member for Fairfax in charge of a review on nuclear power bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr Burns putting Homer Simpson in charge of nuclear power safety in Springfield.
No one loves a reactor like a reactionary. No wonder he is so obsessed by nukes over there. The truth is, renewables are the cheapest, we will deliver increased renewables.
Nothing says Gen X parliament like a Simpsons reference (although technically the prime minister just scrapes in as a Boomer, so a Xoomer, if you will).
Peter Dutton pays his respects on behalf of the Coalition and the debate moves to the federation chamber.
Question time begins
After that rush of news, we are into question time.
Anthony Albanese first puts forward a condolence motion for the Labor MP Bob Brown – the former MP for Hunter, not the former Greens leader, who is still with us.
Bragg unlikely to cross floor to support Labor’s climate bill
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg most likely won’t be crossing the floor in support of Labor’s climate policy.
He says he wants his party to be ambitious itself, telling the ABC:
I want my party to have an ambitious emissions reduction policy. That is what our leader has committed to. My [hope] will be that that is developed and out … at least for the next election.
The reality is we need to be able to present the market and the community with the facts, but we are committed to emissions reduction and we have our own policy … meeting our international obligations, which will also include how we are actually going to achieve doing that.
Paul Karp
What resources will Morrison get as a former prime minister?
Anthony Albanese has made a new determination outlining what resources Scott Morrison will get as a former prime minister.
These include:
- One non-ongoing staffer at or below senior adviser 1 level “for a period of no longer than 12 months, while the former prime minister remains in the parliament”. So, if Morrison sticks around longer than a year, he’ll lose this staffer. Does Albanese know something we don’t?
- One position not above the level of assistant adviser.
After he leaves parliament, Morrison will get:
- One position not above the level of adviser.
- One non-ongoing employee at the senior adviser 2 level, for a period of 12 months from the date of leaving parliament.
Looking at the earlier regulation, this is consistent with what Malcolm Turnbull and other former PMs got, although of course he didn’t stick around in parliament after losing the top job.
Peter Hannam
Government adjusts productivity growth forecast to 1.2%, down from 1.5%
Interesting to see the government has adjusted its forecasts in the budget for productivity growth.
We’d noted here last week that the out-of-cycle October budget provided an opportunity for the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to get the bad news out of the way, with a more realistic forecast than was contained in the final Morrison-Frydenberg budget for productivity changes.
It sounds arcane, but the number Treasury plugs into economic models for productivity growth – ie how much more we get out for a set amount of resources, hours worked etc – makes a difference. The previous budget used 1.5% as the annual growth rate they anticipated.
Just how realistic was that?
The new productivity commission report (which we reported on here, with the original report here) provided this perspective on the long-term trends. In other words, 1.5% was fanciful …
As per the latest Productivity Commission report, here’s how we’re tracking – and why the 1.5% growth rate used in the final Morrison-Frydenberg budget was more than optimistic… pic.twitter.com/ccSu4KU3N8
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) August 3, 2022
The government now has cut the growth path to 1.2%, to bring the budget more in line with reality. Chalmers:
In their budgets they assumed long-term productivity of 1.5%. [The Coalition] never got near it but budget after budget, they pretended they would and hoped no one would notice.
The AFR reckons the damage to the budget is in the order of $50bn out to 2033.
Chalmers’ forecasts for GDP cuts, etc, as outlined last week in his state of the economy speech apparently took that productivity growth change into account.
Well, that has been quite the run of stories.
I’ll spend a couple of minutes catching you up on what else has happened, while you wait for question time to begin
Anthony Albanese leaves the press conference saying he has to get to question time, which is in 15 minutes.
Q: Why can’t the market decide if it wants to invest in nuclear or not?
Anthony Albanese:
The market has decided. There is no-one coming forward and every time has there been, every time there has been reviews on nuclear energy and every time the Coalition, during the Howard era [or] Abbott …
Every time, no-one is prepared to come forward and say they want to spend their money or their shareholder’s money on this because it will take a long time, in terms of the investment … at least a decade.
It will not serve today’s energy prices. And if you want to see how fast Coalition members can run, go into a Coalition party room and ask them who wants a nuclear power station in their electorate. And watch them [get] out the door.
Albanese: after a decade of inaction, delay and denial, we will move forward
But there doesn’t look like there will be any movement on the safeguards mechanism as yet.
We are dealing with today’s legislation, which is pretty significant. The parliament is about to, after a decade of inaction and denial and delay, move forward. The Coalition have chosen once again to engage, they seem obsessed by nuclear reactors, but are ignoring the biggest nuclear reactor of all. It is up there: the sun. Solar power that they are ignoring; they are stuck in the past, they are frozen in time while the world warms around them.
We will not be held hostage to that behaviour, we will continue to advance our agenda, and what I have said is that Australians have conflict fatigue. They want people of goodwill to work together. We will be working together on implement in the agenda to which we were elected.
‘Good day for Australia’
Chris Bowen says today is a good day (cue Ice Cube):
It is a good day for Australia. A good day therefore the economy, a good day for the future. The climate wars may not be over, but they are suddenly in retreat, under this government.
Anthony Albanese responds to the Greens climate announcement
The prime minister is claiming victory. He is in the PM’s courtyard, with climate change minister, Chris Bowen.
Albanese:
This is an opportunity to end the climate wars. If the Coalition decide to break with their rhetoric and actually come to the table and listen to the business community, who are saying that what we need is investment certainty: we need investment certainty to get that investment in clean and cheap energy, which they know – and indeed the Coalition knows – is the cheapest form of new energy going forward.
This is an opportunity for the whole of the parliament to be on the right side of history, to put aside the conflict and the arguments that came around with 22 different energy policies – not one of them implemented – and give support to the government’s mandate that we received in May, for the one policy that we took to the election, the one policy that we will implement.
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