The government’s new 62–70% target is simply not good enough. It falls short of what science demands and what Australians expect. Read the full statement here. 

We are on track for more than 2 degrees of global warming. 

Two in three Australians supported a 75% target - this would have delivered $370 billion in economic growth.  

Investors needed a step change to retool the economy, and this weaker target risks clean energy projects already in the pipeline. Businesses are ready to lead on climate solutions, but this fiscally illogical decision undermines that opportunity. 

Australia has every advantage: abundant renewable energy, critical minerals, and a skilled workforce. We will only realise this potential if leaders set targets that match the scale of the challenge. 

This target reflects a government listening to the fossil fuel industry, not Australian families. Communities are already paying the price: flooded homes, bushfires, sweltering heat, and rising costs for insurance and food. 

Let’s not forget: this target only covers the carbon pollution produced domestically. It does not impact the billions of tonnes we export to other countries as liquified natural gas and coal. In other words, this target applies to just over 20% of our emissions - the other nearly 80% are exported.  

Just this week, the inaugural climate risk assessment laid out how global warming will irreversibly alter our way of life. Climate change knows no borders. Australia cannot wash its hands of the impact of the fossil fuels we send abroad. 

There is an opportunity to make good on this. The government has promised that later this year, vital reforms to the Environmental Protections and Biodiversity Conservation Act will be introduced to Parliament. This is our last chance to ensure that projects like the North West Shelf gas project - a climate bomb that will unleash 4 billion tonnes of climate pollution over its lifetime - can never be approved again. 

I look forward to returning to Canberra to hold this Government accountable. 

Media contact: Zoe Coles - 0402 153 728