Transcript:

Ms PAYNE (Canberra) (15:32): I thank the member for North Sydney for bringing this topic today in the spirit and which it is brought. I acknowledge her contribution this term, though I am sorry that her seat will no longer exist and that she is leaving the parliament. I have really enjoyed working with the member for North Sydney on a lot of things, as well as her genuine commitment to seeing better outcomes for the environment and a range of other issues. I'm sorry to see her go.

This is a really important topic, because we do need to work together. I appreciate the spirit in which this matter of public importance has been brought. We have seen, over many years—longer than the last decade—climate wars in this country. I guess we would have thought that by this upcoming election in 2025 that those wars were over. We hoped that us coming to government at the last election was the end of climate change being a political fight, that the science would finally be accepted and that all people running for parliament in Australia would finally accept that this was a pressing challenge for the entire world that Australia has to play its very important part in. This is something that matters to Australians, not least because of our precious and unique environment that we all value, and that Canberrans value very much. This is the issue that they talk to me about more than any other.

Unfortunately, that's not what we see, because we have an opposition that is going to this election with a policy to go down a path of nuclear power and build seven nuclear reactors around the country. It is just laughable. With the really great ground that the Albanese Labor government have made in the last three years, in not much time—what we have achieved in setting targets and being on track to meet those targets, in record investment and in renewable energy—it is devastating that this will again become a fight at the next election and that all of it is at risk. The experts tell us we are at a tipping point for Australia. We are on track at the moment, and if these things do not continue we will be set back forever.

This is an opportunity for our economy, as well, and our government wants to make the most of that. We want this to be a jobs opportunity for Australia, to be involved in the manufacturing of what we need for the transition to a sustainable economy. And we want to play our part in a world that is transitioning to clean energy and away from fossil fuels.

So I want to say that I agree with the member for North Sydney when she says that at the next election you need to vote as though your children's future and their children's future depends on it, because it does. I couldn't agree more. But I would say that the biggest risk is a Dutton Liberal-National coalition government, because we will see everything that we are trying to do for climate and for the environment completely trashed, among other things.

Mr Perrett: Trump light.

Ms PAYNE: Yes. This is an opposition that still don't know if they believe in climate change. This is an opposition that is suggesting a nuclear policy so ridiculous that even one of their own senators has said it is merely a political distraction. We can't risk that. When members of the Canberra community come to me, though, it is concerning that they don't always realise everything we have achieved. It is ambitious, and I will always stand for the most ambitious action on climate and protecting our environment that we can. But the fact is that it is governments—and Labor governments—that deliver that. We need a government that is committed to this, as we always have been.

I had planned to talk about all the things we have done over the years, and I'm nearly out of time, but our record speaks for itself. We are the party of environment; we always will be.