Independent ACT senator David Pocock seeks to introduce climate 'duty of care' for young people

Just days after the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, declared the era of global warming has ended and "the era of global boiling has arrived", the ACT senator is set to introduce his first private senators' bill, a "sensible way forward" to create a positive duty of care.

The key crossbencher said it sought to plug a "dangerous gap in the legislative framework" exposed by a 2022 Federal Court full-bench ruling that the government did not owe the country's children protection from harm caused by climate change. The case was brought by eight high school students, including Anjali Sharma, who took the then-environment minister Sussan Ley to court in 2020.

"Watching what's happening in the northern hemisphere summer, it's devastating to know that this is the future that we're looking at," Senator Pocock told The Canberra Times.

"This is not the new normal. This is what is here now. And it's only gonna get worse unless we see the kind of bold leadership and action to change course."

The Albanese government has already committed to overhauling Australia's not fit-for-purpose and outdated environmental laws, but the plans - due later this year - for the contentious Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act are already known not to include a "climate trigger", or emissions threshold, for new development approvals.

As scientists are poised to confirm July will be the world's hottest month on record, Senator Pocock said "we have to take" the very small window to avert the worst of warming and "we're currently not".

For him, this would be a threshold question for ministers on care for young people, a question which would have a similar effect to a climate trigger.

"We have a duty of care to protect young people and future generations from climate change," he said. "And to do that we're going to have to make some really, really tough decisions and really start cracking on with this."

READ MORE:

The senator said his bill is designed to do two things as it imposes a statutory duty on decision-makers as financing and project approval decisions are made under six specific existing pieces of legislation, including the EPBC Act and the new National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Act.

"Firstly, it forces politicians and policymakers to consider the impact of climate harm on young people and future generations," he said. "And then secondly, it seeks to stop bad outcomes that would harm the climate and damage the health and wellbeing of young people and future generations."

The bill is not retrospective.

"This bill is born out of years of advocacy by young people leading the charge for greater climate action," Ms Sharma said in a statement.

"We are at a crossroads in history where the government can either act in accordance with its duty to young people to deliver us a safe and liveable future or set us on a path to climate catastrophe."

The ACT representative is urging the Labor government and Senate colleagues to look after young people.

"We should be making decisions that are good for them, particularly when it comes to things like climate and biodiversity," Senator Pocock said. "I think this is a sensible way forward to actually ensure that we're doing that because, at the moment, it doesn't seem like there is even a way for ministers or decision-makers to do that.

"You do need that policy lever that they can actually say, 'Well we've looked at the impact on future generations and this is not something that we want to proceed with'."

Senator Pocock will give the Senate notice on Monday that he intends to formally introduce the bill on Tuesday. After it is introduced, he will seek to refer the bill to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry.