22nd Feb 2021, 4:14 PM – Senate Motions - Climate Change - Carbon market

The majority voted against motion motion 1019 introduced by Queensland Senator Larissa Waters (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that, under the carbon price legislation in place, Australian farmers were poised to be able to sell carbon stored on their land or emissions reduced through changed farming practices into the European Union carbon market, which would earn Australian farmers today a record high $54 a tonne;

(b) further notes that, when the carbon price was abolished by the Liberal government and Clive Palmer, this opportunity for new, lucrative income streams was stripped away, leaving Australian farmers less equipped to adapt to a changing climate and global markets;

(c) acknowledges that because of the Government's seven year sabotage of any meaningful climate policies, our major trading partners in the EU, UK, USA and Japan are all considering in the middle of this year adopting carbon border adjustment tariffs to prevent countries like Australia from free-riding off the work of other countries—our farmers now face tariffs of around $54 a tonne on their products; and

(d) urges the Government to negotiate with the EU so that Australian farmers can sell their abatement into their carbon markets and to apologise to Australian farmers for the financial damage their climate change policies are doing to them.