Name: House of Representatives Chamber (part 2 of 2)
Uploaded: 2026-09-10T05:50:00+00:00
Duration: 4320 s

00:00 - 04:16

Speaker 2

I've seen very clearly. I say that while we work with Meat and Livestock Australia on an updated livestock method, while we work to deliver an updated reforestation and afforestation method, where stakeholders from around the country, but particularly landowners and farmers and people in rural and regional Australia, come to us, come to the government and say how grateful they are that this vital part of opportunity in Australia is being maintained and indeed expanded. I say that as the Minister has noted, knowing the incredible extent to which the savanna fire management method has protected 34 million hectares in northern Australia, delivering $59 million a year to project operators, 75% of which are First Nations-led businesses. Deputy Speaker, the INFM method recognizes the carbon sequestration value that's achieved when there's a commitment to a substantial cessation of logging in state-managed native forests, while rigorously calculating and applying conservative discounts for the possibility of carbon leakage. We are very conscious on this side of the House, through this new method and through the ACCU scheme as a whole, just how critical it is to deliver substantial emissions abatement in a variety of ways and to do so in every area of Australia's landscape and its economy in a way that's predictable, forward-looking, and fair.

We make no bones on this side of the House about the fact that the ACCU scheme is helping to combat dangerous climate change, dangerous climate change that will be felt most sharply on the social and economic circumstances of people in regional, rural, and remote Australia. And the obligation and the responsibility on all of us to take that seriously is something that this side of the House understands, that those on the opposite side of the House completely ignored and put their head in the sand about for the 10 years while they were at the helm of the ship. We know that helping to combat dangerous climate change by emissions avoidance and sequestration and the support that the ACCU scheme provides is critical. It's absolutely essential to a sensibly managed process of decarbonization, one in which Australia continues to reduce our national emissions profile in keeping with our ambitious 2030 and 2035 Paris Climate Agreements, but does so without jeopardizing the viability of emissions-intensive and trade-exposed industries. The INFM method, a new ACCU method, will make a small but a substantial new contribution to that task while supporting a new, much-needed native forest sanctuary for at-risk Australian flora and fauna, not least of which is the koala.

Deputy Speaker, as I have to keep pointing out, the feature of the ACCU scheme that appears to be deliberately ignored by those opposite in bringing this motion and in general is the extent to which the carbon market is creating opportunities for communities in regional and rural Australia. Economic diversification, economic viability, investment of a whole variety of ways, whether it's in the clean energy transition or in carbon farming, that is supporting the vitality of regional and rural communities. And that's something that we see clearly, and that's something that we will continue to support. This motion seeks to block the protection of Australian native forests. It seeks to block, for no good reason, a new piece in a vital patchwork quilt of land-based greenhouse gas abatement at a time when we need to keep doing as much of everything, everywhere, all at once as we can possibly manage: renewable energy and storage, electrification of transport, decarbonization of industry and agriculture and our built environment.

And land-based abatement and all the many good things that brings with it, particularly for rural and regional communities through environmental repair and restoration is a critical part of that. And I'll tell you that the people that come to see the Minister and myself express that in no uncertain terms all of the time. The ACCU scheme, Deputy Speaker, methods... Member for Lyon, you've had your turn. Deputy Speaker, the ACCU scheme methods, including this new method, are a critical element of that process, delivering abatement and sequestration that will help protect this country from dangerous climate change, which is the greatest risk that faces the communities that you purport to represent.

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