Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Climate Change spokesperson
The Federal Liberal Budget has killed off public investment in climate-friendly energy generation, and has committed Australia to a future of plundering the country’s fossil fuel resources. Tasmania, the renewable energy state, has predictably been left out completely.
As if Tasmanians needed more evidence the Liberal Party are dangerous climate deniers, the Budget speech double-speak says the government will be ‘bringing down climate emissions’ through a ‘gas-led recovery’.
The Federal Liberals have committed $12.5 million to commercialise brown coal-fired hydrogen energy in Victoria, instead of backing a potential renewable hydrogen industry in Tasmania.
Over the last three years, multiple feasibility studies have not produced a scintilla of detail about the funding model for Marinus Link and the costs for Tasmanians. This Budget provides a $94 million loan - not a grant - to state governments to continue timewasting spin and lobbying.
A taxpayer-funded, rolled gold talkfest to argue who would pay for a second Victoria to Tasmania interconnector is not a decision or action, and it’s certainly not a commitment to a renewable energy future.
As the planet heats, Tasmanian has been given a mere $4 million towards disaster risk reduction. There’s no new money for environment conservation, and effectively nothing to help Tasmania protect our threatened natural values in the midst of a biodiversity crisis.
In a world of increasing climate disruption, the Morrison Government’s prioritising of a fossil fuel-fired recovery will guarantee Australia’s carbon pollution continues at dangerously high levels for decades, and the environment – and the people it supports – will suffer.