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As expected, the government says no.

Chris Bowen:

The Government won’t be supporting these amendments in line with the reasons I outlined earlier in relation to the honourable member for Clarke, the Government’s position 43%emissions reduction is the modelled impact of our policy, it is what we regard as necessary to get to that zero by 2050 and it is the policy we will continue to implement.

Those reasons were the government went to the election with the target of 43% so that is what it is sticking to

Adam Bandt is moving his amendment now, making the point that Labor’s targets mean “overshooting two degrees”

“If you think what we are seeing now with the fires and floods, Labor’s targets will make things twice as bad”.

Bandt:

When someone has made the problem worse you need to act quicker to fix it, not slow down. The Climate Council, the climate targets Authority, our Pacific Island neighbours, the world’s scientists have all said very clearly if you want to stop global warming exceeding 2 degrees you need to have at least 50% cut but if you want to limit it to 1.5 degrees, to give us a chance of the reef surviving and the 60,000 jobs that depend on it, to give the Pacific Islands what they are asking for and what, indeed, I think this Government just signed up to a couple of weeks ago when it signed up to a communique that said it was committed to limiting global hating to 1.5 degrees when you need pollution cuts of 75%.

That is crystal clear, that is the science, that is why we are doing that. Anything less and you are giving up on 1.5 degrees.

As the Member for Ryan eloquently put it yesterday, you have to understand what Labor’s targets mean. Labor’s targets mean, according to the Climate Council, the climate target panel, overshooting 2 degrees.

That is what it means. If you think what we are seeing now is bad with the fires and the floods, Labor’s targets mean twice as worse.

It means quite as much heating in our planet which will mean an exponential lift in the risk to human life and the risk to our environment. We are not doing this just to cut pollution by a little bit, we are doing this to try and stop climate change becoming a runaway train reaction. So the next time there are fires, the next time there are floods, when we see the Great Barrier Reef bleaching next know that that is what Labor’s targets are all about. That is what they are designed to achieve, 2 degrees or more of heating. Climate analytics and Climate Council all says that. We need to do better. We need to support these amendments.

Adam Bandt’s amendment is up next:

(Mr Bandt*)

(1) Clause 10, page 5 (line 10), omit “43%”, substitute “at least 75%”.

[2030 target]

(2) Clause 10, page 5 (line 16), omit “2050”, substitute “2035 and working towards negative emissions thereafter”.

[net zero target]

But given the Andrew Wilkie amendment failed to get government support, this one will too.

The government won’t be supporting this amendment. Chris Bowen says the government took its 43% target to the election and that is what the mandate is for.

So this one won’t pass.

Andrew Wilkie is now moving his amendments:

(Mr Wilkie)

(1) Clause 10, page 5 (line 10), omit “43%”, substitute “75%”.

[2030 emissions reduction target]

(2) Clause 10, page 5 (line 16), omit “2050”, substitute “2035, at the latest”.

[net zero emissions reduction target]

(3) Clause 12, page 7 (line 18), at the end of subclause (1), add:

; and (e) Australia’s scope 3 emissions of greenhouse gas.

[annual climate change statement]

NSW is reporting 33 more lives lost to Covid in the last day, with 2,213 people being treated for the virus in hospital. Victoria is reporting nine new deaths and 723 people in hospital.

Helen Haines has responded to Ted O’Brien’s assertions about Haines’ amendments.

Haines points out, rightly, that the Coalition is complaining and opposing, but has not actually put forward any amendments itself. It’s almost like they just want to be able to complain and oppose and not have to do anything (much like the last 10 years on this subject):

From the chamber:

Independent Helen Haines’ amendments ‘very sensible’, Chris Bowen says

Rebekha Sharkie has moved Helen Haine’s amendments adding in more regional voices and influence to the legislation (Haines has Covid).

Chris Bowen says they are “very sensible” amendments and challenges the Nationals to support them.

David Littleproud says the Nationals will not be supporting the amendments because “this would be like the climate change authority [assessing] its own homework”.

He says it would be better to have independent people assess the impacts, so it is not going to support the bill.

The Nationals have not moved their own amendments, it has to be said. They are joining the Liberals in opposing everything.

NSW transport minister David Elliott to contest state Liberal deputy job

For those watching NSW politics, AAP has an update:

In NSW, transport and veterans minister, David Elliott, is the first to throw his hat in the ring to take on the vacant deputy Liberal leader’s job, after the resignation of Stuart Ayres yesterday.

Ayres was forced out after revelations a draft review into the appointment of former deputy premier, John Barilaro, to a New York trade role revealed Ayres may have been more involved in the process than he had claimed.

“I don’t put my name forward out of excitement or enthusiasm [but] the premier is under the pump,” Elliott told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.

“The easiest thing for people to do at the moment is to walk away or keep your head down … but that’s just not my style.

“My job is to really just say to the party room, and to the party, I’m available if you think that my skill set is going to work.”

Matt Kean, who was deputy leader under ex-premier Gladys Berejiklian and is considered likely to have the numbers, has yet to put his hand up for the job.

As well as his deputy position, Ayres lost his ministerial portfolios for western Sydney, tourism and sport, and enterprise, investment and trade.

Those responsibilities have been allocated to other ministers by Perrottet, with Elliott taking over for Western Sydney.

There are so many amendments, and resulting divisions, the federation chamber can’t get going – every time it starts, there is a division.

So the federation chamber is suspended until this bill is dealt with.

The Coalition are voting against … everything.

Commonwealth Bank first of the big four to lift interest rates

Peter Hannam

The CBA has become the first of the big four banks to lift its interest rates in the wake of the Reserve Bank’s rate rise on Tuesday.

Not surprisingly, Australia’s biggest bank has passed on the 50 basis point increase in full.

The standard owner-occupier rate loan with principal and interest will rise to 5.8%, while investor home loans will rise by the same half-percentage point to 6.38%.

Savers, too, will get the 50bp bump up, although the annual rate of 1.25% for the GoalSaver and 1.45% for YouthSaver deposits seem modest when you think about headline inflation running at 6.1%. Still, it’s better than what it was before today.

Those willing to fix for 15 months can earn 2.5%. Deposit holders, though, might want to consider that the CBA expects the RBA to raise its cash rate another 75bp to 2.6% before it halts its hikes (and starts cutting later).

Meanwhile, investors still reckon the RBA has a ways further to go, with another percentage point-plus in rate rises to come.

Zoe Daniel is now moving the amendment to make clear in the legislation that 43% is a floor, not a ceiling.

She says she sees this bill as “a start, not a finish”.

Chris Bowen says the government will support this amendment as well.