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At an event last night to mark the 10th anniversary of the carbon price being legislated, Greens Leader Adam Bandt – whose victory in the seat of Melbourne led to the establishment of a Multi-Party Climate Change Committee that developed a world-leading suite of climate policies – has released modelling showing the carbon price was operating so effectively that had it not been repealed, the Liberals weak 2030 targets would have been met in 2020, a full decade early.
As another power-sharing minority Parliament looms, Mr Bandt said Labor should be proud of their cross-party achievement under Julia Gillard instead of continually trying to airbrush the period out of history, and should instead join the Greens in directing their criticisms at the real enemy – the Liberals – who tore down the only climate policy in this country that actually worked.
MR BANDT said:
In just its first year of operations, the Clean Energy Act cut emissions by 10 million tonnes.
If the Liberals hadn’t torn up the carbon price, Australia would have stopped an additional 256 million tonnes of pollution going into the atmosphere.
Every tonne counts.
We’ve modelled it. If the price on pollution had not been murdered on the floor of the Parliament, we would have cut over a quarter of a billion tonnes extra of pollution over the last six years.
In 2020, pollution would be 464 million tonnes a year, compared with the 512 Mt we reached under the Liberals and the 529-585 Mt forecast under Kevin Rudd’s own poor first draft of a climate policy.
If we had kept the price on pollution, we would have met the Coalition’s weak 2030 targets in 2020.
Australia’s pollution would already be 26% below 2005 levels, meeting the Government’s insufficient 2030 target 10 years early.
We would be ten years ahead of where we are now.
We would not face, as a country, the humiliation and shame on the international stageScott Morrison inflicted on us these past weeks.
We would not be putting Pacific Islands at risk of going under.
We would be able to honestly and credibly say we are doing a fair share of what needs to be done to keep people safe.
We would be able to stand with our allies, the USA and the UK, to increase our 2030 commitments.
We could condemn the actions of Russia, but instead Scott Morrison has had Australia join them, holding back the rest of the world’s efforts to keep people safe.
The carbon price package wasn’t perfect and nor did everyone get everything they wanted. But it not only worked, it strengthened the economy, solved big problems we faced, and set us up for the future.
Julia Gillard’s achievements here are often ignored.
Not only by the political media, but often by the ALP too.
Ten years on, we can see clearly how these policies would have worked to reduce millions of tonnes of pollution.
Instead of spending all their time telling tall tales about the one that got away, Labor needs to be proud of the climate legislation we actually landed.
The real villains in this piece are the Liberal Party, the Murdoch media and the coal and gas corporations, who all joined together to tear down the only climate policy that actually worked.
As we head towards another minority Parliament, it’s a reminder of what we can achieve for the country when the Greens, Labor and independents work together.
Coal and gas corporations still have deep pockets, but the tide has turned.
As a result, at the next election, we will kick the Liberals out.
And the Greens are once again in a position to be in the balance of power.
If history and current polling are a guide, the Greens could hold the balance of power in the Lower House and the Senate too.
Indeed, pushing Scott Morrison into minority Parliament will only take a few hundred people shifting their votes, but Labor needs to defy recent history to win a majority in their own right.
So a power-sharing parliament is the most likely outcome.
In balance of power, the Greens will kick the Liberals out and push the next government to take climate action.
What we can push the next government to adopt remains to be seen.
Distressingly, in a time of climate crisis, Labor wants more coal and gas. And they still take donations from coal and gas corporations. Where they’re in power in the states and territories they’re opening up new coal and gas mines and federally they’re backing the Liberals to do the same.
Pushing Labor to act on coal and gas will be a priority for us.
The Liberals won’t act at all, but Labor won’t act on coal and gas unless the Greens are there to push them.
For amongst all the tales of alternative history that get told in politics, all the ‘if onlys’ and ‘could have beens’, one stark, historical fact stands out.
The only time that pollution has meaningfully come down was when the Greens were in the balance of power.
Fortunately, if only a few hundred people change their vote, that’s where we’ll be again after the next election.

The Greens have vowed to fight Scott Morrison’s move to bankroll carbon capture and storage, saying public funds should not be funnelled to billionaire coal and gas corporations for unicorn technology.
“The way to tackle climate change is to get out of fossil fuels, but Scott Morrison wants to funnel public funds to coal and gas corporations for a unicorn technology they haven’t been able to make work themselves,” said Greens Leader, Adam Bandt.
“Today, the UN has warned that we’re heading to over 2.4C of warming unless we take urgent action by 2030. It’s time to get out of coal and gas, not fund more of it.
“Public money should go to schools, hospitals and renewables, not to tax-dodging billionaire coal and gas corporations.
“Coal and gas are not ‘clean energy’.
“The Greens secured the CEFC during the 2010 power-sharing Parliament, we made sure it couldn’t fund CCS and we’ll fight this latest attack tooth and nail.
“The government doesn’t need legislation to take ownership stakes in new start-ups. The CEFC can do that already and an investment mandate from the Minister would put it beyond doubt. The only reason the Liberals want legislation is to turn the CEFC into a slush found for coal and gas corporations.
“This is nothing to do with stopping climate change and everything to do with Scott Morrison rewarding the coal and gas corporations that donate to the Liberal and Labor parties.”
“The simplest way to stop pollution is to stop digging up and burning coal and gas in the first place, not to hope unicorn technology will one day stop coal and gas pollution escaping.
“Here lies the big trick of Scott Morrison’s climate charade. He pays coal and gas corporations to dig up fossil fuels then pays them to fail at cleaning up their pollution. They win but the rest of us lose.”

Hundreds of students studying to be doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals head to Coffs Harbour every year for part of their training, consequentially creating jobs, boosting local investment and increasing access to health professionals for local patients.
Through the Australian Government’s Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training (RHMT) Program, students are exposed to many of the unique challenges facing rural patients, while experiencing the benefits of living and working on the mid-North Coast.
Federal Member for Cowper, Pat Conaghan and Regional Health Minister, Dr David Gillespie today visited the Coffs Harbour Rural Clinical School, operated by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), to meet with students and staff.
Mr Conaghan said he was proud to be part of a government that recognised the benefits of rural medical training and the challenges associated with the health workforce maldistribution.
“UNSW receives more than $28 million from the Commonwealth for its RHMT activities across a number of sites, including Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie, to give more students the opportunity to train in the regions and create local jobs,” Mr Conaghan said.
“This funding has a double benefit; students undertake part of their medical training here and in turn it creates jobs for local medical and administrative staff,” Mr Conaghan said.
“The clinical school in Coffs Harbour has 16 local staff, who supported more than 50 students to complete 12-month long medical placements last year.”
Dr Gillespie – who himself spent 10 years as Director of Physician Training at Port Macquarie Base Hospital – said the RHMT program encouraged more health professionals to practise in the bush.
“RHMT is a win-win-win for the students, the patients who can access care, and for the host communities,” Dr Gillespie said.
“There are valuable social and economic benefits, with support for local businesses through procurement of goods and services and job opportunities.
“It has been demonstrated that for every dollar spent under the RHMT program, another dollar is generated in the local economy.”
Mr Conaghan said in addition to the Rural Clinical School, UNSW’s Mid North Coast Regional Training Hub is based in Coffs Harbour, and employs seven academic and administrative staff.
“UNSW has partnered with local health organisations through the hub to assist and develop regional training pathways, support accreditation of training posts to meet community needs and improve the retention of medical trainees in the area,” he said.
Mr Conaghan said Federal Government investment also meant that around 100 medical placements were able to occur in Port Macquarie last year through UNSW’s Rural Clinical School in Port Macquarie, which employs 39 local staff.
The RHMT program also provides funding to the University of Newcastle (UoN) to operate a Department of Rural Health in Coffs Harbour. This campus enabled several medical students to undertake five-week placements during the previous academic year in Coffs Harbour.
“Last year, 120 nursing, midwifery and allied health students took part in this program, equating to over 800 training weeks undertaken locally,” Mr Conaghan said.
Twenty-one universities are currently participating in the RHMT program across Australia.
Dr Gillespie said by investing in the RHMT program, the Federal Government is highlighting the professional and personal benefits of practising in regional, rural and remote communities.
“And while the RHMT program provides short placements, there are many long-term gains, as more graduates head back to the bush to care for local communities,” Dr Gillespie said.
 

The Morrison Government will establish a new $1 billion technology fund to turbocharge investment in Australian companies to develop new low emissions technology.
The Low Emissions Technology Commercialisation Fund (the Fund) will combine $500 million of new capital for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) with $500 million from private sector investors.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Fund would back Australian early stage companies to develop new technology.
“Our Plan to reach net zero by 2050 is an Australian one that’s focused on technology not taxes and this Fund backs in Australian companies to find new solutions,” the Prime Minister said.
“Australia can become a world leader in creating low emissions technology that is both affordable and scalable, helping get emissions down while creating jobs.
“We are backing Australian businesses by creating an environment for their successful ideas to thrive in contrast to Labor’s approach to always wanting to tax success.”
Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said the Fund demonstrates the Government’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions through investments in technology.
“The Fund will support Australian innovators to develop their intellectual property and grow their businesses in Australia,” Minister Taylor said.
“It will address a gap in the Australian market, where currently small, complex, technology-focused start-ups can be considered to be too risky to finance.
“Together with other new initiatives, like the increased investment in establishing seven Clean Hydrogen Industrial Hubs around Australia, today’s announcement brings our commitment to more than $21 billion of public investment in low emissions technologies by 2030.
“Our investment will leverage 3-5x that amount in co-investment from the private sector and other levels of government, or between $84 billion and $126 billion in total investment by 2030.”
The Government will introduce legislation to establish the Fund in this term of Parliament. The Fund is expected to earn a positive return for taxpayers.
The Fund builds on the CEFC’s success as the world’s largest government-owned green bank. The CEFC has committed $9.5 billion across 220 large scale projects and 23,700 smaller-scale transactions, driving $33 billion in new investments across the economy.

As we return to many of the freedoms we took for granted before COVID-19, it is important to acknowledge the service of all those who have been involved in the heath response to the pandemic.
The National Incident Centre (NIC) has been in continual operation for more than two years, frequently operating around the clock to help coordinate Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Department of Health’s emergency operations centre, the NIC has performed many roles and has adopted new ones in its response to the pandemic. The officials in the NIC have done, and continue to do, an incredible job in helping protect the lives and health of Australians.
NIC staff have continued to provide additional support to states and territories, including through contact tracing and case interviews. Their support through contact tracing has resulted in more than 15,000 notifications to various authorities on the movement across borders of people with COVID-19 to date.
Building on the pandemic experience of 2020, the NIC has continued to distribute millions of masks and other PPE from the National Medical Stockpile (NMS), to states and territories, aged care facilities, disability service providers and Primary Health Networks. The NMS has recently been extended to include rapid antigen testing for residential aged care facilities, as well as additional COVID-19 treatments for Australians in hospital.
The NIC has been crucial in the use of a range of powers under the Biosecurity Act 2015, many of which have been used for the first time in preventing COVID-19 from entering Australia through international borders.
In recent months the focus has shifted to supporting the staged reopening of Australia to international travel. The NIC and the Office of Health Protection and Response have worked across government to safely repatriate hundreds of thousands of Australians.
The NIC has supported more than 450 COVID-19 meetings by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), which provides advice to National Cabinet on health protection matters and national priorities. This includes working with the states and territories to develop nationally consistent public health advice through the Communicable Diseases Network Australia and the Public Health Laboratory Network.
The NIC is also the primary means of communication with the World Health Organization for public health events, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NIC also helps to coordinate Australia’s health emergency response to national and international incidents, including deploying Australia’s national specialist emergency health response capability, the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT).
During the pandemic, AUSMAT was deployed to assist in Wuhan, China, as well as to support our close neighbours Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Timor-Leste. In Australia, AUSMAT has deployed to Howard Springs and Christmas Island; Burnie hospital and international arrivals quarantine in Tasmania; Victoria, in response to outbreaks in 75 residential aged care homes; and to remote communities in Western and Far West NSW.
Created in 2019, the NIC commenced operations as the National Incident Room in November 2019, in response to a measles outbreak in Samoa. It then led the health response to the Black Summer Bushfires, followed by the White Island volcanic eruption in New Zealand in early 2020.
Staffed by a core of dedicated and skilled officers within the Department of Health, the NIC consisted at its peak of 200 officers, drawing on agencies including the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Australian Border Force.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those officials who work or have worked in the NIC over the past two years, and the teams supporting them from across the Australian Public Service.  Their service continues to be critical to the effectiveness of Australia’s response to COID-19.

Three leading members of the Australian Sports Foundation have been reappointed as the agency continues to champion sport funding and philanthropy across the sector.
Olympic rowing gold, silver and bronze medallist Kim Brennan AM, Olympic water polo gold medallist Gail Miller OAM and dual Olympian and Commonwealth Games swimming champion Andrew Baildon have been re-endorsed as their important work with the foundation continues.
The ASF has been helping athletes, sporting clubs and organisations fundraise for more than 30 years. It is chaired by prominent business identity Grant O’Brien.
Minister for Sport, Richard Colbeck, said the re-appointments provide leadership continuity for the ASF board, as Australian sport at every level continues to recover from the global pandemic.
“The past 18 months has been incredibly challenging for sport in Australia, and a recent survey by the ASF found the pandemic continues to cause financial instability, reduced participation and volunteering across the sport sector,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Ms Brennan, Ms Miller and Mr Baildon have all served a three-year term on the board already, so they bring a steady hand to the Foundation at this time.
“It’s at times like this that having strong leadership and stability at the ASF becomes critically important, as we grow the philanthropic funding support for Australia’s sporting sector’s recovery and into the future.”
Ms Brennan is a management consultant specialising in technology and high performance, and has held roles with sporting bodies including the Australian Institute of Sport Ethics Committee and the AOC Athletes’ Commission.
Ms Miller is an experienced professional in the property industry, has a degree in property economics and is a director on the board of the Queensland Olympic Council.
Mr Baildon is a businessman in the sports sector, an Australian Swimming board member and had an instrumental role bringing the 2018 Commonwealth Games to the Gold Coast.
Minister Colbeck thanked departing board member Josh Liberman.
“We are incredibly grateful for the contribution made by Josh Liberman on the ASF Board, having served two terms,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Since joining the ASF in 2015, the Foundation has raised record amounts of funding, rising to an annual total of more than $50 million before the pandemic took hold, which is an incredible legacy.”
The ASF’s “Back to Sport fund” is seeking donations to support community sport’s recovery from COVID-19.

An Albanese Labor Government will work with community groups to fix up our local waterways – restoring precious habitat and creating valuable recreational spaces for local communities.
The Urban Rivers and Catchments Program will provide grants for community groups, local and state government to fund projects which deliver improvements to water quality and the local environment, create improved open spaces for kids and families to enjoy and create local jobs.
Many of our rivers in urban and peri-urban areas have been treated more like stormwater drains over the years, but there are local community groups right across the country who are working to turn that around.
Our parks and reserves provide a place for people to get together for picnics and children’s birthday parties, they’re where we teach our kids to ride their bikes and walk the dog – and recently they became even more precious during times of lockdown.
Fixing up our waterways and the catchment areas around them will give people access to a better quality of living.
Importantly, nearly half of all nationally listed threatened animals and one quarter of our threatened plants are in urban areas. Taking steps to repair and restore our waterways and catchments helps protect these species and create great recreational areas for local communities.
Labor’s plan for Urban Rivers and Catchments will help protect species like the Regent Honeyeater, the Curlew Sandpiper, the Koala, several frog species and the loggerhead turtle.
There are hundreds of community groups across the country taking action to clean up their local waterways for everyone to enjoy.
Labor’s $200 million program will help fund that work to make an even bigger impact, including by:

• Creating wetlands to slow water flow and filter stormwater before it reaches our rivers
• Citizen science and education projects for pre-schoolers and school age children
• Removing cement walls and returning them to natural riverbanks
• Revegetation and tree planting

It is expected the fund would provide grants for as many as 100 projects, depending on project size, with smaller community group projects likely to be less than $1m and larger projects involving state and local governments eligible for up to $10m.