Page 3389 - Week 11 - Thursday, 11 November 2021
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levels—businesses, industries, councils, state and territory governments, entrepreneurs, students and regular people.
The world is also moving on without us. Many car manufacturers have declared that they will no longer make internal combustion cars. Many countries are talking about imposing a carbon price on exports from those who lag behind. If we do not accept the changes that are needed and that are already happening, we will have no role in this. We will miss opportunities and we will be left out.
It is possible to make rapid change. We know this because we just did it at a national level for COVID. Don’t be afraid of smart changes made well. We hear so much fear from some sides of politics. There is nothing to be frightened of. Those changes are going to make our lives better than they were before. I know this because that is what happened for my family when we went on a carbon diet.
Changing the national and the international conversation is hard, but progress is possible. COP26 has had an unprecedented level of participation. It has finally moved away from the toxic conversation of “Should we or shouldn’t we?” and it is at that more productive stage of: “Exactly how do we do this and how do we do it fast enough?”
We have seen progress on smaller agreements, too. In June this year this Assembly passed a motion calling for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. It was a grassroots call and it was really early in the piece. That call for a treaty now has the support of 132,737 individuals, and 17 cities and subnational governments, including the City of Sydney, the cities of Darebin, Moreland, Yarra and Maribyrnong in Melbourne, cities in the United States and the United Kingdom, and Barcelona, Nepal and Canada.
Today’s motion calls on every member of this Assembly to endorse action that the ACT has already taken. That action is signing up to the call for a treaty, joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, rapidly phasing out fossil fuel, including gas, and prioritising zero emissions transport. We are already doing this in the ACT. I want to make sure everyone in this chamber is 100 per cent on board.
Today’s motion also calls on the leader of each party to write to their federal counterpart. We need our federal leaders to commit to doing what we have already done in the ACT. We need them to declare a climate emergency, and legislate 2030 and 2040 targets that will take us to net zero. We need them to immediately cease all new fossil fuel exploration, to phase out all fossil fuels and to end public subsidies for coal and gas. We need them to set a national 100 per cent renewable target. We need them to commit to a national zero-emission transport plan and to follow through on every commitment we make at COP26.
We do not have time to pull in different directions. We need leadership, coordination and action. I take real comfort from the progress we have made in the ACT, and there is so much more we can do and learn from others. We will only manage it if we have commitment and action at every level of government. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
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