Senate passes climate change bill. This should become springboard for action

For the first time, Australia has clear national minimum targets enshrined in law to drive our shared efforts in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The years of Australia's leaders sticking coal-blackened fingers in their ears about the climate crisis appear to be behind us.

Parliamentarians from central Queensland and regional Tasmania, representing the regions, suburbs and inner cities, spanning an array of backgrounds and life experiences - and even one Liberal - joined forces to put this country on a pathway to net zero.

The bill that passed into law was proposed by the Labor government, improved by inputs from the Greens and a number of the teal independents in the lower house, and then strengthened further by David Pocock in the Senate.

So who gets to claim credit for this great first step in the right direction? Everyone who voted for the bill does, because this kind of all-in effort is exactly what it will take to fix a problem as big as climate change.

The Climate Compass survey, taken before the 2022 federal election, found 79 per cent of Australians from across the political spectrum wanted to see Australia do more to tackle climate change.

This makes it clear that climate action doesn't belong to any single political party or point on the political spectrum.

It can't, when what we need now is an everything, everywhere, all-at-once approach to setting Australia up to seize the benefits of a zero emission economy.

That feels like a weird and transgressive thing to say given the weaponisation of climate policy by the former government, but it would be considered bleeding obvious elsewhere.

Look at the UK, where for all his many faults former conservative PM and Brexiteer-in-chief Boris Johnson led a government that upped the UK's ambition on climate action and secured global commitment to the Glasgow Climate Pact at COP26. His predecessor as conservative prime minister, Theresa May, was the first leader of a G7 country to commit in law to net zero by 2050.

Germany's Angela Merkel was leading a coalition with the right-of-centre Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union when her government passed laws mandating the closure of all coal-fired power plants by the late 2030s.

In France, parties of both the left and right supported 2021 laws which, among other things, banned short-haul domestic flights where lower emission train trips are available as an alternative, and established low emission transport zones in all large urban centres.

Some of Australia's best state and territory climate policies to date have also been joint efforts between parties. The ACT offers more than a decade of proof that combined efforts by Labor and the Greens can deliver for our climate, with key examples like the Territory's achievement of 100 per cent renewable electricity and its pathway to phasing out gas.

Collaboration in the Victorian Parliament between Labor and the Greens also delivered Australia's most comprehensive Climate Change Act in 2017, which has become an enduring framework for that state's leadership on emissions reduction.

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Most members of the Coalition didn't add their voices to this week's vote like their conservative counterparts have overseas. Those who made the conscious decision to step back from action on climate are doing themselves and their communities a disservice.

There is still plenty of time in this term for the Liberals and Nationals to choose a different path. They could choose to transform themselves from blockers to advocates for millions of new jobs that will come through growing businesses and the revival of our regions as we transition to renewables. But whether they seize the opportunity or not, Australia is moving forward - driven by our community's clear preference for more climate action.

The new Climate Change Act can be a springboard for action, and there are many more steps the Parliament must now take. Some - like the upcoming debates on reforming the safeguard mechanism, federal environmental approval processes for new coal and gas projects, and fuel efficiency standards - have far higher stakes because they will directly determine how far and how fast we cut emissions over this most crucial decade.

But the first step down a new path is often the hardest, and that's why the Parliament's collaboration towards a brighter future this week deserves recognition.

Taking action on climate is a shared and urgent responsibility. Everyone who helps get it done is a champion, and all Australians will win when it gets done.