National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2022

The majority voted in favour of an amendment introduced by Melbourne MP Adam Bandt (Greens), which means it will now be included in the bill.

Mr Bandt explained that:

Public money should not go to making the climate crisis worse, and public money should not be invested in coal, gas or the destruction of our native forests. That is what people across this country expect. What we have seen in the past is that when government bodies are established that allow the government to invest, previous governments have tried to use that money to support making the climate crisis worse. The Liberals even tried to use the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Renewable Energy Authority to finance coal and gas! So we know that governments need to be stopped from financing the climate crisis and making it worse.

Amendment text

(1) Clause 63, page 39 (after line 3), at the end of the clause, add:

Prohibited investments

(3) An investment for the purposes of the Corporation's investment functions must not relate to any of the following:

(a) an activity that involves the extraction of coal or gas;

(b) an activity that involves the construction of coal or gas infrastructure;

(c) a project or product that involves the logging of Australian native forests;

(d) an activity the carrying out of which is inconsistent with Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

(4) In this section:

Australia's greenhouse gas emission s reduction targets means:

(a) if:

(i) Australia's current nationally determined contribution was communicated in accordance with Article 4 of the Paris Agreement in June 2022; and

(ii) that nationally determined contribution has not been adjusted in accordance with paragraph 11 of Article 4 of the Paris Agreement;

the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set out in paragraphs 10(1)(a) and (b) of the Climate Change Act 2022; or

(b) in any other case—the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets included in:

(i) Australia's current nationally determined contribution communicated in accordance with Article 4 of the Paris Agreement; or

(ii) if that nationally determined contribution has been adjusted in accordance with paragraph 11 of Article 4 of the Paris Agreement—that nationally determined contribution, as adjusted and in force from time to time.

Paris Agreement means the Paris Agreement, done at Paris on 12 December 2015, as amended and in force for Australia from time to time.

Note: The Agreement is in Australian Treaty Series 2016 No. 24 ([2016] ATS 24) and could in 2023 be viewed in the Australian Treaties Library on the AustLII website (http://www.austlii.edu.au).