As the Morrison government talks up fossil fuel subsidies with its so-called ‘gas-led recovery’, only 12% of Australians want our economic recovery to be primarily powered by gas, compared to 59% who prefer investment in renewables.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has slammed reports of the Morrison Government offering a carbon credit scheme to Santos, saying it represented a perversion of a carbon price that would only encourage the development of fossil fuel projects.

“We're heading towards the climate crisis cliff and with just ten years to change course, we need to be investing massively in renewables and hydrogen through a Green New Deal, not propping up unproven and unscalable unicorn technology,” Mr Bandt said.

Under questioning from Greens Senate Leader, Larissa Waters, at Senate Estimates, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources has confirmed that new, more accurate methods of measuring the climate damage from methane (natural gas) will mean Australia will emit the equivalent of approximately 150 million tonnes more of climate pollution between 2021 and 2030 than previously estimated. Instead of decreasing emissions faster to stay within the existing budget, they will simply increase the amount of permissible emissions.

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

   (i) the Government's climate-wrecking 'gas-led recovery' plan includes coal seam gas drilling in Narrabri and a gas-fired power plant in the Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW),

   (ii) on 30 September 2020, the NSW planning commission approved the Santos Narrabri coal seam gas project despite more than 20,000 submissions opposing it,

   (iii) greenhouse gas emissions from the Narrabri gas project are estimated to be 128 million tonnes over the life of the project,

Instead of investing in Australia's future, the Morrison government is choosing inequality and climate collapse in its federal budget. The federal budget to be handed down tonight is many things. I'll start by saying that it's a real contradiction. After last year's big proclamation that we were back in the black, after years of highly misleading and incorrect assertions that surpluses are all the evidence we need of good economic management, we are staring down the barrel of an enormous deficit.

The Greens want a thriving, expanding and green manufacturing sector, but this government's plan for manufacturing is based on a completely unconscionable, climate-wrecking expansion of fossil fuels. They could choose renewables, but they don't. They talk up advanced manufacturing while actively decimating local research and innovation. A manufacturing plan without funding for research and skills isn't worth the paper it's written on. The Liberals and Nationals have defunded TAFEs and gutted research. They're not interested in our future.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt and NSW Senator Mehreen Faruqi say the approval of the Narrabri Gas project is the first domino to fall in the Morrison Government’s gas executive-stacked energy plan, which flies in the face of the climate emergency and basic market economics.

The Narrabri Gas project is a climate disaster and it has just been approved, against the will of local farmers and the Gamilaraay Traditional custodians. 

Greens Leader Adam Bandt said:

“Scott Morrison and his gas cartel have just lit the fuse on a giant climate bomb.”

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP, has warned that without meaningful short-term targets, a plan to phase out coal & gas and a focus on green hydrogen, the energy roadmap will be nothing better than an attempt to greenwash the Coalition's existing climate inaction.

"We’re driving towards a climate cliff and Angus Taylor is pressing the accelerator," Mr Bandt said.

The Australian Greens have vowed to block any moves to turn the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Clean Energy Finance Corporation into fossil fuel slush funds.

ARENA and the CEFC, created via the Greens-Labor Agreement in 2010, have delivered 543 clean energy projects, driven down costs of large scale solar and facilitated $27.3 billion of job-creating investment, earning a profit for government of $1.7 billion from investing in renewables.