Senator Jacqui Lambie has warned the Greens will be held responsible if a bill to bring down emissions in Australia fails.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said he was open to negotiations over the safeguards mechanism, but demanded a ban on new coal and gas projects, which the government has rejected.
Senator Lambie said she was “sick and tired” of the party’s tactics and argued the legislation was needed to create a starting point for change.
“I’m worried that it’s going to fall over and it’ll be the Greens’ fault,” she said.
“You need a starter point … we can keep working on reducing those emissions as we’re going along.
“The Greens can continue their fight over coal and gas, but for goodness sake, if that’s what you’re standing on and you don’t get anything through at all, then we’re back to where we started.”
The mechanism would apply to the country’s biggest emitters and aim to reduce emissions by 205 million tonnes by 2030.
The coalition opposes the safeguard, meaning the Labor government needs the support of the Greens and two more crossbench senators.
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen used a UN report on climate change to stress the need for immediate action.
“It is critical that we seize every possible day of the remaining decade to drive down emissions,” he said.
“Ten years of denial and delay has increased the threat of climate change to our health, environment, economy and national security.”
Independent senator David Pocock said while the government wanted the safeguard passed in the next fortnight, it needed to be fine-tuned.
“We need to get it right,” he told reporters.
“This is a really big piece of climate policy, and let’s be clear, we currently have a safeguard mechanism, it’s just not working.
“We’ve got a crossbench urging the government to simply ensure that it delivers what they say it’s going to deliver.”
Resources Minister Madeleine King said gas was needed as part of the transition to renewable energy.
“In order to decarbonise, the world needs our resources industry and our critical minerals,” she said.
“No gas means no processing of critical minerals and therefore no batteries for the storage of renewable energy, and that makes our pathway to net zero emissions all the more difficult.”
Carbon Market Institute chair Kerry Schott said the safeguard mechanism was needed to ensure certainty in industry.
“We need the safeguard mechanism to get through to become more attractive for investors,” she told the National Press Club.
“A safeguard mechanism isn’t going to fix everything. It is one piece of legislation. So it is very important this relatively slender bill gets through.
“At least we will have the policy in place and we can be moving forward.”
© AAP 2023
