The Greens and Liberals have drawn the battlelines for the next political fight on climate and energy, as the Albanese government prepares to celebrate the passage of its emissions targets bill.
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Labor's climate change bill is expected to pass the Senate on Thursday with the support of the Greens and ACT independent David Pocock, turning its 43 per cent 2030 emissions reduction target and net zero by 2050 goal into law.
"It's been a long time between drinks for sensible, progressive climate legislation in our country, but it's just the beginning," Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said ahead of the final vote.
The focus will now shift to the specific policies the government will lean on to achieve the targets.
That includes a proposed redesign of the so-called safeguard mechanism, the scheme introduced under the former Coalition government to limit pollution from the nation's largest emitters.
The scheme has failed to bring down emissions across the facilities since its introduction in 2016, with critics blaming design flaws and loopholes.
The Albanese government wants to gradually lower the emissions baselines for the 215 polluters covered under the scheme, helping to align them with the new 2030 and 2050 targets.
The government will require legislation to implement the new regime, meaning it needs either the support of the Coalition or a bloc including the Greens and one crossbencher, such as David Pocock.
Greens leader Adam Bandt will use an appearance at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia forum on Thursday to condemn the existing scheme as a "rent seeker's paradise" which has allowed pollution to rise.
But if it won't do that, and is intent on reforming the safeguard mechanism, Mr Bandt will urge Labor to work with the Greens rather than the Liberals.
"The government has a big 'fork in the road' choice ahead of it," Mr Bandt will tell the forum, according to pre-prepared remarks supplied to The Canberra Times.
"They can work with the Liberals to design a useless scheme, flooded with offsets, that the coal and gas industry are happy with.
"Or Labor can choose to work with the Greens to design a scheme that actually drives down the real and absolute emissions going into our atmosphere and oceans, not just make it look better on an accountant's ledger with offsets."
Mr Bandt's comments will come after Liberal leader Peter Dutton signaled the Coalition would fight Labor's proposal, which he suggested was a "tax by stealth".
In a speech to the Minerals Council on Wednesday, Mr Dutton said the government was "weaponising" the safeguard mechanism as a "battering ram for its legislated emissions reduction targets".
"Labor's use of the mechanism speaks to its distrust of business and of industry," Mr Dutton said.
"Labor always seeks to compel behavioural change, rather than incentivise it."
Mr Dutton used the speech to again attack Labor's climate change bill, which the Coalition is voting against.
The Liberal leader said legislating a target would deny Australia the policy flexibility it needed to respond to volatile economic conditions.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
