STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator ANANDA-RAJAH (Victoria) (12:55): Ask young Australians what's holding them back from having kids, and you may be surprised. It's not necessarily housing or the cost of living but rather climate change and whether they'll have the social infrastructure and the economic security to start a family. The latest Growing up in Australia report, a survey of around 8,000 gen Zs, puts numbers on what we already sense.
An overwhelming majority—seven in 10—still hope to have children. That hope hasn't disappeared, but it's being weighed down. The dominant concerns were climate change and whether they will have the supports and job security to start a family—plus women gen Zs are concerned about norms that leave them carrying most of the care work at home.
This isn't a generation that has given up; it's a generation with an ember of hope that is waiting to catch. They want the scaffolding strengthened so that they can build their lives with confidence. That is exactly what this Labor government is doing on two fronts—climate action and family security—because these were never separate problems.
On climate, the numbers are moving fast. After a decade of denial and delay under those opposite, we have taken this country from a standing start. Renewables now supply 51 per cent of our main grid.
It was 33 per cent when we came to power four years ago. Along with rooftop solar, 540,000 and counting cheaper home batteries have been installed, turning our homes—Aussie homes—into the backbone of our grid. Gas usage fell from 2.7 terawatt hours in the summer of 2021-22 to 1.5 terawatt hours in 2025-26.
EV sales have overtaken petrol cars for the first time, and EV trucks are coming in numbers, backed by $70 million we contributed to Volvo to mass produce these prime movers in Brisbane. In the hard-to-electrify sectors, we have $1.1 billion for low-carbon fuels made from sugar, canola, sorghum and tallow grown by our farmers. Feedstock worth $4 billion will become a fuel market worth $40 billion in 2050—that's jobs and fuel security.
That is the future made in Australia in action. We have landed a nearly $12 billion deal with the White House for our critical minerals. As of September we have approved 146 renewable energy projects.
When One Nation and the Liberals abandon net zero, they turn their backs on young Australians and squib an economic windfall. Eighty-four per cent of the world's GDP has signed up to net zero. According to the International Energy Agency, $3 trillion went into clean tech last year.
In contrast, only $1.6 trillion went into fossil fuel investment. Follow the money! The Climate Change Authority says that Australia can cut global emissions by up to 10 per cent.
We are the world's battery; we just need to be plugged in. That is what the future made in Australia agenda is all about. Why wouldn't we want a slice of that trillion dollar pie?
We can turn this transition into an export and jobs engine, with energy security as the bonus, because unlike foreign oil our sun cannot be blockaded. Alongside climate action, gen Zs want decent social and economic infrastructure that supports a good life, so we are strengthening the scaffolding: child care, including the three-day guarantee for all families; paid parental leave expanded to six months, with super on top; and 'use it or lose it' provisions for partners because raising a child should not default to mums.
We've driven the gender pay gap down to 11.3 per cent, the lowest it's been in Commonwealth history, and that is no accident. We have backed in consecutive increases to the minimum wage, dialled down casualisation, granted more flexibility at work, given workers more bargaining power, introduced payday super, backed junior wage rises, banned wage secrecy and criminalised wage theft.
We are banning non-compete clauses and we have legislated same job, same pay. All of this was opposed by One Nation and the Liberals. Only Labor governments stand up for workers rights, because economic security starts with a secure, well-paid job.
To young Australians: the progress on climate and the scaffolding that you need and crave will be swept away if those around you vote for One Nation and the Liberals. Your entitlements, super, wages, all those protections that you have fought for and that we have fought for will be gone, and we will go back to winning 'colossal fossil' awards at conferences, just like we did under Morrison.
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