MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator CASH (Western Australia—Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (17:29): Let me explain scope 3 emissions in plain English. Imagine you run a car yard, you sell a car and then the government tells you that you are now responsible for every kilometre the car is ever driven by whoever ends up owning it wherever they live. That is the absolute madness of what scope 3 is.
It is a fact that scope 3 emissions are not a business's own emissions. They are the emissions of everybody else: the suppliers, the customers and the people who use its products—this is where it gets even madder—often on the other side of the world. In other words, making Australian businesses answer for scope 3 emissions is sheer madness.
But then again, it's the Albanese government who dreamed this up. This is how businesses have described the compliance burden in relation to scope 3 emissions. It creates significant compliance costs and administrative burdens throughout the supply trains and, lo and behold, traps small businesses in yet another regulatory nightmare.
Alternatively, scope 3 carbon accounting is a form of grey tape, again basically putting another regulatory burden in particular on small business. Now, last week, as we know, it was the High Court that said the approval for the Mount Pleasant mine in the Hunter Valley was invalid not because of anything that happens at that mine—not dust, not noise, not water.
It was because of, lo and behold, what happens when the coal is burned in another country. That is stark raving mad. Now, the court was admittedly applying New South Wales state law, but who runs New South Wales?
It is the Minns government. In other words, the Minns Labor government could actually change their own law tomorrow. Here in Canberra, guess what we could actually do.
We could lead this through National Cabinet or, alternatively, the Albanese government could legislate itself. And yet what has it done? It has not lifted a finger.
Labor in Sydney, Labor in Canberra—two Labor governments, one Hunter mine and not one of those Labor governments willing to stand up for the workers. But here is the part that should make every Australian angry. Ninety-eight per cent of the emissions counted against that mine happen overseas.
They are counted in the country that burns the coal. Then they are counted again here in Australia against an Australian mine. In reading the judgement, I have to say that the types of conditions that were argued in this case were to sell the coal only to certain countries and require power stations overseas to use particular technology before they can buy Australian coal.
A planning approval in the Hunter trying to tell a power station in Asia how to run—you actually could not make that up. And federal Labor has made it worse, because, of course, this is a requirement that the Albanese government passed in 2024 that forces big Australian companies to report on emissions that are created overseas. So it is not just their own pollution; it is their customers, their suppliers—things they don't own, don't control and can't properly measure.
It is guesswork and, sadly, it costs a fortune. And we know who ends up doing the paperwork: the local trucking company, the family farm, the small engineering shop in a regional town. More forms, more consultants, more costs—the hallmarks of the Albanese government.
What does it end up with? Well, the consumer at the end of the line actually pays more. We voted against this in 2024.
Sadly, Labor teamed up with the Australian Greens and voted for this madness. So what have we said? You've got to get rid of scope 3.
That's what you've got to do. The coalition plan is simple. Australian projects should be judged on what happens in Australia.
That's it. And what Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister, could do tomorrow is scrap Labor's scope 3 reporting rules because Australian businesses, yes, can answer for their own emissions but should not answer for emissions that are created overseas. Labor has a choice: stand with the Hunter, stand with the workers or, as they'll do, stand with the Australian Greens.
Australians will be watching.