Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026

Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (11:30): The Greens will be supporting the Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026, and we're very pleased that, in order to secure our support, the government agreed to extend the current 50 per cent capital gains tax discount for renewable assets from 2030 to 2040.

Obviously, that amendment has been moved and accepted by the House, and today—or, at least, at latest, sometime this week—it will no doubt be agreed to by the Senate, with the government and the Greens ensuring that that is the case. The extension of the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount from 2030 to 2040 for renewable assets is a big deal, because somewhere around 70 per cent of investment into renewables in Australia is from overseas, so the way that we tax international investment into our renewable energy sector is critical in order that we do everything that we can to ensure an accelerated rollout of renewables in this country.

Renewable technology in Australia is facing many, many headwinds at the moment: low wholesale prices, high interest rates, a performance test in our superannuation sector that does not do enough to encourage superannuation funds to invest in renewable energy, climate misinformation and climate disinformation funded by international fossil fuel conglomerates and United States billionaire climate deniers, which is driving some community opposition to the construction of renewable energy assets.

So, when we had a chance, in that context, to do something significant to ensure that we did not put yet another significant barrier in the way of international investment into renewable energy in Australia, the Greens took the chance, and we're very pleased to have come to an agreement with Labor to extend the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount in relation to renewables from 2030 to 2040.

I spoke about the blockers to renewable energy investment in Australia. I want to speak more about that, because, even though some of those issues, including international supply chain constraints, are largely out of the control of this parliament and state and territory parliaments in Australia, one thing that is in the control of politicians and political parties in this country is the fact that state governments keep extending the lives of their dirty, ancient, clunker coal-fired power generators.

At the same time, we have a federal Labor government, who love to pretend they're all about climate and all about renewables, opening new coal and gas mines hand over fist. The Labor Party has opened 37 new coal and gas projects since it came into office about four years ago. They are running at about 10 new approvals per year for coal and gas—in the context of a disaster in Nepal and Tibet that has claimed the lives of over 5,000 people.

Why did these people die? Because psychopathic governments keep opening new coal and gas mines. Because psychopathic governments keep logging and burning native forests.

You cannot claim to care and take action on climate while you are still destroying native forests and while you are still approving, hand over fist, new coal and gas projects. When you are doing those things, you have blood on your hands—the blood of innocent people who are going to die in their droves this century because psychopathic, cowardly governments, in thrall to the fossil fuel corporations and the psychopaths that run them, are opening new coal and gas mines, destroying nature, and clear-felling, logging and burning our forests.

What a time we find ourselves in here, colleagues, when the Prime Minister says now is not the time to talk about climate change. Well, if we don't talk about it now, when are we ever going to talk about it? When will we ever tell the truth?

If you're not prepared to tell the truth in the wake of thousands of people dying in Nepal and Tibet, when will you ever accept the reality of what the science is telling us? It's like the National Rifle Association in the US on another school shooting, another school massacre—'thoughts and prayers'. That's all we're getting from our prime minister: 'It's time to think of the families.' Yes, it's time to think of the families, but you know what else it's time to do?

Take action on climate change. Stop approving new coal and gas projects. That's what it's time to do.

Be honest with people about the utter catastrophe that is coming down the line because of your actions as a government. It makes me sick to even think about the calamity that is facing not just this country but every country in the world. Of course, you know who's going to pay the highest price.

It's the Global South—poor people, brown and black skinned people, people of colour. They are going to pay the price for this government's sociopathy, this government's cowardice and this government's hypocrisy. Thankfully, we've been able to take a small step by fixing Labor's mistake in this legislation which would have potentially frozen or significantly disincentivised investment into renewable energy and made our current predicament worse.

I want to be very clear about one aspect of our current predicament: Australia is not going to reach our 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030. That is abundantly clear. The sooner the government admits that the better.

The percentage of renewables in our grid, just like the amount of carbon in our atmosphere, does not buy political spin. Political spin does not matter to thermodynamics. Do you want to know what the scariest graph in human history is?

The scariest graph in human history is the atmospheric CO2 level graph. I'll tell you why that's the scariest graph in human history. It's because it's a dead straight line heading for the heavens.

We haven't even slowed down the rate of growth in our atmospheric CO2 and CO2-equivalent levels. Despite all the COPs, all the agreements, all the political spin and all the investment in renewable energy, we're not even slowing down the rate of growth of carbon in our atmosphere. Thermodynamics does not care whether we agree to do things or we disagree to do things.

It doesn't care what our percentage of renewables is. It doesn't care about anything except the levels of CO2 and CO2-equivalent gases in our atmosphere. That is what is driving climate catastrophe, and that is the scariest graph in human history.

We can't even slow down the rate of growth. Decades after Kyoto, the atmospheric CO2 levels are heading in a dead straight line upwards—1.5 degrees is gone. I suspect two degrees either is gone or will shortly be gone.

The Gulf Stream is collapsing. There's a record El Nino coming. People are dying in their droves.

Tragically, we ain't seen nothing yet, Collins. We ain't seen nothing yet. When the history is written about this time, the people who facilitated the destruction of our ecosystems, our climate systems and our natural systems will be portrayed in the same way as some of the great villains of human history—because that's what you are.

You are some of the great villains of human history. History will not be kind to you, and it should not be kind to you because you are the facilitators of death, misery, war and famine. You are complicit in the looming deaths of billions of people.

It won't make anyone feel better that history judges you in that way, but you should all know that that is exactly how you will be judged.