Stirling Griff voted moderately for increasing investment in renewable energy

The majority voted against this motion, which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes, with concern, that the Adani Group (Adani) is on the record blatantly misrepresenting the number of jobs its polluting Carmichael coal mine would create;

(b) condemns Adani's deception in inflating its jobs figures sevenfold, until it was forced under oath to reveal that the true figure is in fact 1,464 direct and indirect jobs over the life of the project, rather than the 10 000 claimed;

(c) further notes that the carbon pollution from Adani's mine would significantly contribute to dangerous global warming, further endangering the Great Barrier Reef and the 70 000 jobs that rely on it; and

(d) asserts that, rather than relying on a polluting, deceitful company to provide jobs for Queenslanders, federal and state Governments should invest in renewable energy, service industries and manufacturing as the best drivers of Queensland jobs.

The majority voted against a motion, which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the Australian Government's plans to make Australia one of the top ten weapons manufacturers globally, raising us from the 20th to the 10th spot, and

(ii) the dangerous and destructive effects of the global arms trade in fuelling conflicts;

(b) re-affirms the comments of World Vision CEO, Mr Tim Costello, that Australia will be "exporting death and profiting from bloodshed";

(c) condemns the fact that the Government plans to loan $3 billion to arms manufacturers, which is equal to Australia's entire foreign aid budget, which has suffered $11 billion in cuts since 2014, and follows attempts by the Government to cut $2 billion from higher education; and

(d) calls on the Government to cease immediately this plan to turn Australia into a mercenary nation of arms dealers, and instead use the funds to revitalise our manufacturing industry around renewable energy, electric cars, advanced medical technology and education services.

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Senator David Leyonhjelm, which means the motion failed.

Motion text

That the Senate agrees that—

(a) the renewable energy target should not continue beyond 2023;

(b) no scheme to subsidise renewable energy generation or mandate a particular market share for renewable energy generation should replace it; and

(c) renewable energy projects not already approved by the Clean Energy Regulator be ineligible to receive subsidies via renewable energy certificates.

The majority voted in favour of a motion: That the Senate does not consider coal-fired power to be clean.

This motion was introduced by WA Senator Rachel Siewert (Greens) also on behalf of Victorian Senator Richard Di Natale (Greens).

The majority voted in favour of a motion to pass the bill in the Senate. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a third time.

Since the bill's already passed in the House of Representatives, it will now become law.

What does this bill do?

This bill does a lot of work! It crosses eight different portfolios, from Education to the Treasury. Read more about it in the bills digest.

For example, the bill:

• will lower the minimum threshold for repaying Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) debts from $54,868/years to $51,956/year;
• gets rid of the Job Commitment Bonus; and
• reduces funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to support schedule 5, which:

reduce[s] funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, giving effect to the Government’s policy to discontinue providing grants for renewable energy research and development in favour of a limited new loans and equity investment scheme known as the Clean Energy Innovation Fund

This motion was put after Senator Derryn Hinch introduced a motion to oppose schedule 5.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill for a second time. In other words, they agreed with the main idea of the bill and will now discuss it in more detail.

What does this bill do?

This bill does a lot of work! It crosses eight different portfolios, from Education to the Treasury. Read more about it in the bills digest.

For example, the bill:

• will lower the minimum threshold for repaying Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) debts from $54,868/years to $51,956/year;
• gets rid of the Job Commitment Bonus; and
• reduces funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Greens Senator Larissa Waters, which means it was unsuccessful.

Motion text

At the end of the motion, add:

, but the Senate condemns this bill for ripping $500 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency's clean energy innovation grants as a dangerous and irresponsible act of sabotage, especially in a climate emergency and global transition to clean energy, and because it leaves the Coalition and Labor parties with no meaningful plan to meet Australia's Renewable Energy Target and pollution reduction target agreed at the Paris climate conference.