A 43% EMISSIONS TARGET IS THE VERY LEAST WE CAN DO

And in more detail...

A National Green Audit delivered annually to Parliament

To keep the Australian public abreast of the federal government’s progress in achieving net zero by 2050, the Good Party will push for a National Green Audit delivered to parliament annually. The yearly Audit will explicitly and publicly outline the quantifiable progress made towards achieving the government's goals over the previous 12—month period, with KPIs set for the conclusion of the following 12 months. Should these goals not be met, the NGA will also outline the strategies required to “catch up”. 

The Good Party, however, believes that, as a nation, a 43% emissions target is the very least we can do. It should be Australia’s, indeed the world’s, ambition — our duty to future generations — to strive to be carbon-negative, removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit. To this end, the Good Party has in mind several initiatives.

Fleet emissions standards — a significant reform opportunity

As we all know, motor vehicles are a major contributor to the harmful C0₂ we pump into the air. The challenge is how to reduce those emissions. EVs have zero emissions, so having more of those on the road is helpful, but we need to make them as cheap as possible so that more people can afford them. But how do we do that in a way that’s neutral to the federal budget (i.e., that doesn’t include or require a government subsidy)? Establishing a National Fleet Emissions Standard (FES) is the key.

Say a car maker imports 1000 vehicles. The FES would impose an aggregate C0₂ emissions target on these 1000 vehicles before they could be legally sold. The FES target would be low, so the only way the maker could sell those cars on our shores would be if a healthy proportion of them were no-emissions vehicles — EVs. This would necessitate a significant price drop for the vehicles to ensure their sale. It would also encourage the car maker to introduce cheaper EV models.

Around a million light passenger vehicles are imported and sold annually in Australia. If these vehicles were subject to an FES, it would impact Australia’s overall emissions and help the nation meet its 2050 target.

Of course, the real benefit of EVs driven in significant enough numbers to lower the nation's CO₂ output will only come about when the grid that charges them is itself powered by renewables.

Say a car maker imports 1000 vehicles. The FES would impose an aggregate C0₂ emissions target on these 1000 vehicles before they could be legally sold. The FES target would be low, so the only way the maker could sell those cars on our shores would be if a healthy proportion of them were no-emissions vehicles — EVs. This would necessitate a significant price drop for the vehicles to ensure their sale. It would also encourage the car maker to introduce cheaper EV models

Ending the subsidies paid to the fossil fuels industry

Ironically, given the drive for a greener Australia, the federal, state, and territory governments pay subsidies to the fossil fuels industries. In the 2021-22 FY, subsidies to these industries totalled $11.6 billion[1]. This must cease in all but the most exceptional of cases[2].

Perhaps these billions would be better spent developing clean resource opportunities such as the green hydrogen industry and technology related to its uptake.

The fossil fuel subsidy does not include the farming Fuel Tax Credit (FTC), which some refer to as a fossil fuel subsidy. The Good Party does not advocate for the elimination of the FTC because many farmers simply could not survive without it. It’s also worth noting that if the FTC were to be removed, the prices of many products would increase significantly, turbocharging inflation.A positive decision to "opt-out" of green energy.

To begin with, any individual, home, or business signing up to a new contract with an energy provider should have to “opt-out” of using green energy rather than checking a box to "opt-in", which is the way most agreements are structured. We all need to think a little harder about where our energy comes from and make a conscious decision about its supply. We want to believe that most Australians would choose the option that will mitigate their energy footprint. A phased end to gas in the home

According to the media company Bloomberg, "The 5 million Australian houses with gas connections account for about 17 percent of the fossil fuel consumed yearly." And yet, thousands of new homes are connected to the gas network every year.

Ironically, given the drive for a greener Australia, the federal, state, and territory governments pay subsidies to the fossil fuels industries. In the 2021-22 FY, subsidies to these industries totalled $11.6 billion

If we're serious about Australia's net zero emissions target, we need to start weaning ourselves off these fossil fuels. Given this reality, it's not unreasonable to end new home connections to the gas network by, say, 2030. The sale of replacement gas appliances for the home — cooktops, heaters, and hot water systems — should also be phased out by 2035, with subsidies covering the price differential offered for the uptake of clean carbon-neutral alternatives.

The Good Party would support legislation aimed at phasing out gas in the home, along with the sale of home gas appliances.

The introduction of more acceptable vehicle and fuel emissions standards

New light vehicles sold in Australia must comply with the current Australian Design Rules standard. This is ADR 79/04, which is based on the Euro 5 standard. European cars, meanwhile, must comply with the Euro 6 standard. This upgraded standard targets tighter emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (THC and NMHC), and particulate matter (PM). The unfortunate side effect of having a lesser vehicle emissions standard in Australia than the standard in force elsewhere is that the world’s car makers dump their dirty engine vehicles on our shores. This needs to be rectified.

The petrol pumped into our cars is also of lesser quality. Indeed, Australia is the only OECD country that doesn’t have a fuel standard. The Australia Institute’s Fuel Efficiency report, released in August 2022, found that adopting an appropriate global fuel standard would have saved Australian motorists $5.9bn in fuel costs and prevented nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being produced!

The Good Party will argue strongly for introducing vehicle and fuel standards.

Australia is the only OECD country that doesn’t have a fuel standard. The Australia Institute’s Fuel Efficiency report, released in August 2022, found that adopting an appropriate global fuel standard would have saved Australian motorists $5.9bn in fuel costs and prevented nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being produced

Ending the "carbon credits" sham

The Australian government’s carbon credit system, a system introduced by the previous LNC government, is a sham. It needs to be cleaned up as a matter of urgency.

Professor Andrew Macintosh, former head of the government’s Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee, said of the growing carbon market that has wasted more than $1bn in taxpayer funding: “People are getting credits for not clearing forests that were never going to be cleared, they are getting credits for growing trees that are already there, they are getting credits for growing forests in places that will never sustain permanent forests and they are getting credits for operating electricity generators at large landfills that would have operated anyway.” Macintosh, an environmental law and policy officer at the Australian National University, concluded, “What is occurring is a fraud on the environment, a fraud on taxpayers, and a fraud on unwitting consumers.”

A carbon credits system can deliver tangible benefits. The Good Party will see the system changed to deliver those benefits.

The global shortage of lithium

There has been recent enthusiastic talk about Australia becoming a green energy superpower. We certainly have enormous quantities of the raw materials required — sun and wind — and this cheap inexhaustible power source could be employed to power the development of new green fuels worth billions. So far, however, little action has been directed at practically achieving this goal. While the Good Party is technology agnostic, what’s clear to us is that the current trend toward battery storage is unsustainable.

Aside from the harmful environmental issues attendant with battery disposal, a recent audit of the world’s supply of lithium, the crucial component of lithium-ion batteries, the standard electricity “fuel tank” in almost all current electric cars, will fall way short of providing what’s required to store the world’s energy requirements in battery production. And deposits of rare earth minerals crucial in transitioning away from fossil fuels are also severely limited.

Hydrogen is the fuel source many experts believe will power the world’s not-too-distant future. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, the element that powers the sun, contains approximately three times the energy of oil and gas. And when it ignites in the air, the waste product is crystal clear, pure water

The opportunity is hydrogen

While the limited quantities of lithium are a reality check, a superior inexhaustible alternative is already waiting in the wings. Hydrogen is the fuel source many experts believe will power the world’s not-too-distant future. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, the element that powers the sun, contains approximately three times the energy of oil and gas. And when it ignites in the air, the waste product is crystal clear, pure water. There is any number of methods of producing commercial quantities of hydrogen, – electrolysis, the creation of hydrogen-rich ammonia (NH3) using the Haber-Bosch process, and steam methane reforming (SMR), which breaks methane down into its component elements of CH4 (one atom of carbon and four atoms of hydrogen). All three processes are endothermic, requiring energy to induce them. And that’s where renewables enter the picture, providing the power to harvest this hydrogen or to produce ammonia, which liquefies at minus 33 degrees Celsius and contains 1.7 times more hydrogen per cubic meter than liquefied hydrogen. This makes ammonia the ideal way to transport hydrogen around the world.

Matching the export of fossil fuels with Green Energy products

Australia has ambitions to become one of the top three exporters of green hydrogen by 2030. But what’s required to make this ambition a reality is a range of visionary policies from the federal government to stimulate the development of this new and potentially lucrative industry. To help push this ambition along, the Good Party will introduce legislation that targets matching the energy density of our exports of fossil fuels (oil, LNG & coal) with Green Energy by 2040.

Ocean acidification research and more National Marine Parks

The world’s oceans are becoming increasingly acidic, threatening diverse ecosystems, bleaching coral, and killing untold sea life. If this trend continues, the sea will become a marine desert, an existential threat to all life. Therefore, the Good Party will see that grants are made available to research the acidification of the oceans while increasing the total volume of National Marine Parks (surface area) by not less than 20%. This will also benefit our fish stocks, a boon to commercial fishers and sport fishers alike, as larger marine parks will provide more area for fish fry to develop and reach maturity.

The world’s oceans are becoming increasingly acidic, threatening diverse ecosystems, bleaching coral, and killing untold sea life. If this trend continues, the sea will become a marine desert, an existential threat to all life. Therefore, the Good Party will see that grants are made available to research the acidification of the oceans while increasing the total volume of National Marine Parks (surface area) by not less than 20%

The quest for reliable base load

The political energy wars driven by ideology that the Australian public has endured over the last decade have at least educated the voting public on some of the finer points of energy delivery. The term “base load” is widely understood to mean electricity produced when the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun doesn’t shine. More technically, it’s “the minimum amount of electric power delivered over a given period at a steady rate.” In Australia, that steady power is delivered mainly by coal-or-gas-fired generators and hydro. Much has been made recently of the aging coal-fired power stations in several states being taken offline and the possibility of replacing them with new gas-fired infrastructure. To the Good Party, this would be at odds with the nation’s ambition of being a net zero emitter. It’s unlikely that the present government would build a power station that burns fossil fuel. If, however, in the unlikely event that Australian taxpayer dollars are tipped into such an enterprise, the Good Party would only support such an endeavour if this hypothetical power station could ultimately be converted to a clean fuel such as hydrogen.

The lasting benefits of a "mining tax" 

While there is currently a resource rent tax applied to the profits of mining and fossil fuel industries, it's not working when a company like Santos that generated billions in company revenue can structure its affair so that it pays no tax at all (no tax paid from 2015-18, and again in 2020. Just $6m paid in 2023 on $28.9bn profit). Clearly, this needs redressing.

Since 1996 Norway has been taxing the profits of its oil and gas sector at 78%. In 2023, this has generated a staggering A$127 billion or around $23,500 for every Norwegian citizen (figures from The Australia Institute).

Meanwhile, Australia’s tax on the gas sector in the same period generated a measly $16.3 billion.

Mining companies' argument that they pay taxes and provide jobs doesn’t hold up when you examine it closely. The taxes paid are always minimised, and the jobs are rarely permanent, with the mining operation folding when the resource runs out or the market dips.

Mining companies' argument that they pay taxes and provide jobs doesn’t hold up when you examine it closely. The taxes paid are always minimised, and the jobs are rarely permanent, with the mining operation folding when the resource runs out or the market dips

How miners could reduce their royalties and do some good

The Good Party can also see a way to make everyone happy. The miners could reduce their royalties by investing in green energy projects like green hydrogen to replace coal and gas in power stations or use in the production of green steel and aluminium. Win-win.

It really is time for the mining industry to put something back. The mining boom might well have come off its peak, but when enormous profits are being generated. Australia should receive a long-term benefit for giving mining companies the green light to have access to our finite resources.

[1] Federal government subsidies are provided for the building of a gas-fired power station, upgrades to other gas-and-coal-fired power stations, concessional loans for coal mines, the building of roads and railways to coal mines in remote areas, an oil jetty upgrade, and more…

[2] Consideration needs to be given to refining, supplying, and storing strategic reserves of fuel for the defence of Australia